Hybridization

Chapter 145 – Warming Up

Chapter 145 – Warming Up

“Should we add a new business resource group for Paranormals? I mean, we have others like LGBT, Veterans, African American. Why couldn’t we add one for our para employees?” – Human Resources officer in a discussion about employee engagement at a regional bank.

Hannah shivered as she took off her coat sat down at her desk, the damp early-spring air carrying a chill that lingered. She had just dropped her kids off at school and planned to work out of the office for the day until it was time to pick them up again. She plugged in her laptop to its dock and let it boot up to what she had been working on earlier in the morning.

She loved the flexibility that this job offered and made a mental note to send Kurt a thank you card. The last few months had been a complete turn around compared to the last few years. For the first time since her husband had passed, she was able to give her boys a good Christmas and birthdays, which had been only a couple weeks after getting the job.

Once again a chill ran down Hanna’s spine and she debated putting her coat back on until she felt something brush against her legs. She looked down to confirm it was what she thought and smiled to herself. “Good morning, Moz.” She cooed and scooted her chair back so the creature could hop up in her lap.

Moz was short for Mozilla and he was Feraz’s pet. He was a species known as a flame fox that came from some strange world she didn’t even know about until she had met Kurt. The creature definitely looked like a flame fox with orange and yellow fur but was only the size of a house cat, if a more traditional fox shape.

The little creature hopped up in her lap and curled around itself while propping his chin on his tail. Hannah ran her fingers though his fur and scratched behind one ear as it began to purr in a high rumbling squeak that then led to how the species got its name. It slowly began to glow with a dim ember-like light as it radiated heat, immediately banishing the chill that she had felt earlier. She sighed and scooted her chair closer to her desk and pulled up the contract she was working on for the local hardware store and its electronic security.

“Mozzy! Where are- Oh, Morning Hannah.” Feraz entered the office area, calling for his pet but stopping when he noticed his only onsite employee. “I didn’t hear you come in. Don’t suppose…”

“Yes Feraz, I have him in my lap.” Hanna swiveled her chair slightly to show her boss the flash of fur from the flame fox. “I just got here when he hopped up and made himself at home.” She told him.

“Hold that thought.” Feraz said and walked out of the shared office space and into the back room where he kept most of his hardware that he installed in customers homes and businesses. She heard him rummage around a bit until he came back with a fluffy high walled dog bed. “Here, let me just slide this under…” He walked around her desk and slid the dog bed next to the filing cabinet, where it wouldn’t be in the way.

“Figured since he likes to hang around up here when you are here, I might as well get him another bed.”  Feraz explained why he had gotten another pet bed for the fox.

Hanna watched his eyes track something behind her and he frowned slightly before continuing his conversation. “Did you have that contract for the hardware store?”

“Should be done in a few minutes.” Hannah said. “I wrote three separate terms for them though.”

“Why three separate ones?”

Hanna turned and clicked on the document then scrolled to the relevant page. “Because I know Gary and he likes to nitpick. This way, he has his choice of monitoring and data retention.” She pointed to the options with the highlight function of her cursor as Feras pulled up another chair to read over her shoulder.

“It’s the same equipment since you did the walkthrough and did the quote for the camera and sensor coverage. All I changed was how much recording he can have and at what resolution for the AV security.”

Feraz skimmed the highlighted section. “Nice work. Shit, I wish I had thought of that for our other clients.” He scratched at his long floppy green ear. It was a nervous habit he had that Hanna quickly caught on to.

“If you are worried about missing some potential income, maybe we can do a round of follow up meetings with our current clients?” Hanna offered. “Get something on the calendar with them and call it a check in or something so you can get feed back and see how the equipment is wearing. That would give you an in to talk about it.”

“Girl, I don’t pay you enough!” Feraz laughed. “That is brilliant and I am green with envy that I didn’t come up with it.”

Hanna snorted a laugh at his pun. She had gotten to like the little goblin despite her earlier culture shock at the rather high energy individual. He was also incredibly understanding and supportive of her personal life and the single parent situation. If she were being honest, it was the best job she had ever had.

His eyes shifted focus and tracked along the windows behind her again, something that they did out of an evolutionary trait. A second later his smile faded and he tapped the pendant on the necklace he wore, his body shimmering and being replaced with an illusion of a smaller human boy in his late teens.

“I’m going to pop next door for a cup of coffee. Can I get you anything? Kurt’s buying as usual.” He said while grabbing his coat from the rack.

Seeing that he was nearly out the door, she called out to him. “Medium latte with soy please!”

“You got it!” he called back before vanishing down the stairs in the back and through the back door.

Hanna always wondered why he never came and went from the front door unless he was with a client but just thought it was a weird goblin thing. Or maybe it was a Feraz thing? Either way she had to finish up her current work before ordering some inventory.

As she turned around, she caught some movement outside. Her eyes skipped up but only caught the edge of something before it was past the border of the window. She shrugged and went back to her monitors. A few seconds later she glanced up to see someone carrying something but couldn’t see what.

Just a few more details and she hit print. She scooted back along the aisle to the printer while in her chair since Moz was still laying claim to her lap. After grabbing the stack of papers, she began inching her way back to her desk when the same person carrying the same thing walked by again and she was able to focus on it.

It was a man dressed in black, wearing dark sunglasses despite the overcast and a scarf pulled high around his face. He held a sign on a picket and was waving it around. She squinted a little to see what the sign said but couldn’t make it out.

Curious as to what was going on, she began to stand up, picking up Moz in the process but was stopped by the sound of the back door opening and closing again. She turned to see Feraz coming up the stairs with a couple coffee cups and a bag of pastries.

“Something going on out there?” She asked as he came over.

“Yeah, and nothing good.” He said and set down his drinks. “Hey, hate to do this to you but why don’t we go ahead and review our safety and evacuation procedures? Do a quick walk through and then we go and talk to Gary about the contract together? You said you know him, right?”

Hanna was startled by his tone and seriousness. “Feraz, what is happening out there?”

The goblin sighed and climbed up into the spare chair at her desk. “Listen, there are some protestors out there. You know the type, a little too focused on one location and loitering around a little too much.”

“But why? What are they upset about?” Hanna was confused. Petoskey wasn’t a large town and there wasn’t really enough people to make much of an impact. She honestly thought a protest might get the wrong attention from most people.

“They are upset about us.” Feraz said and reached into a cabinet to pull out a binder and begin leafing though it.

“What, about paranormals?”

“Well yes, but actually no.” Feraz handed her the binder and her coffee. “I am almost certain that they are hear because of the Order but I will have to wait for my trackers and recording devices to pick that up.”

When Hanna just gave him a look of confusion he elaborated. “While I was out there, I bugged a bunch of them and am tracking where they will go and who they will associate with. These guys aren’t locals, so I want to know why they are here.”

“OK, what do we need to do?” Hanna didn’t want to get involved in any of this. She had her own problems and her kids to think about. She didn’t have time for… whatever was going on out there.

“Well, we are going to go over all this and do a practice run. Then we are going to go talk to Gary and sign some paperwork. After that you are going to work from home until all this is resolved.” Feras said. “Just avoid coming in if you can help it. Probably for the best because I have a feeling that we are going to have some guests in the building until this is resolved.”

With that, they did a review of safety procedures that had suddenly become relevant in Hanna's eyes. Then they did some real work before she went home to finish out her day until her kids were done with school and she got on with her actual life.

*****

“Hey Kurt, I’m gonna need you to do something.” Penny said after hanging up the phone.

“Hmm?” He looked up from his laptop where he was reviewing the outstanding orders that Jay had given him. Most were filled but there were a few items that needed to be made after the field offices and support teams had expanded again. He had already delivered Taylor’s items but needed to make some more custom armor for Gella’s team.

Penny was about to answer but she got another call and looked down before frowning slightly and answering. “This is Penny. Hi Feraz. What can I do for you?” Kurt was only hearing one side of the conversation but just rolled with it and went back to his work, listening with half a mind.

After a few minutes of conversation that Kurt mostly tuned out, Penny turned back to him. “Hey, we uhh we might have two things. First call was Jay and he has an Earthside mission for you. The second was Feraz and he said that there is something going on downtown. Protesters or something.”

Kurt looked back up. “What protest?”

“He said that some out of towners have showed up and are generally loitering around near the coffee and security shop.”

“Anything more? Are they attacking people, impeding traffic or just being a general nuisance?” Kurt wanted specifics before he made any decisions on that.

Penny apparently didn’t know because she just pulled up her call log and dialed him back. “Hi Feraz, I have Kurt here and he has questions.”

“Send it.” The goblin said from what sounded like the hands-free system in a car.

“The protesters, what is their disposition?”

“EH?”

“How many. General age and gender. Are they armed. Are they organized. What are they doing.” Kurt rattled off what he wanted to know.

“I would say probably a dozen that I saw. All guys around their late twenties. I didn’t see any weapons but they were all wearing jackets and dressed in black. All looked like the same group.” Feraz answered before taking a pause. “They were mostly hanging around in the green spaces around downtown with a focus on our operational area. Holding signs and being obnoxious.”

“OK, I will figure some stuff out and work out some muscle for you.”

“Thanks Kurt. I sent Hanna home and told her to just work remotely for the time being.” The sound coming from the speaker sounded like he put the car in park. “Just keep me in the loop. I got them bugged so I will be feeding that data back to the Order as it comes in.” With that he ended the call and Kurt turned back to Penny.

“Jay has a new mission for you. Apparently, there was a request that came in through our normal help line, and they asked for you specifically.” She clicked on her laptop before turning it around and showing him an email with an attachment.

“We do that?” Kurt was amazed that the Order would have a helpline like that.

“How do you think those Cep-Ma mages got ahold of us?” Penny smiled. “This one comes from a group in Grand Rapid who needs some ‘professional advice and problem solving’ according to the call log.”

Kurt began reading through the attached file and saw it was for something called the ‘Paranormal Parlement’ who appeared to be a civil association of some sort. They wanted help with…

“Are they asking me to tell them how to topple the government in that city?” Kurt couldn’t help making the jump in logic. Oh, the attached call log and files didn’t explicitly state that but he could read between the lines.

Penny turned the screen back around. “Jay says that is for you to decide. He wants you to run point on this one and do what you think is best. He said, and I quote, ‘I don’t give a fuck about that city, much less this group of paras. Kill them all if you think that makes our lives easier… or if you want to.’” Her impression of Jay was getting better, she nailed the cadence that he spoke in.

Leaning back, Kurt thought for a moment. His first thought was that he shouldn’t make the decision on his own, so he went and got the girls who were busy making a list of things they had learned that were useless in their previous training. Apparently, Jay wasn’t the only one looking to overhaul their onboarding.

When he briefed them on the issue, Val was first to offer her opinion. “Get Ra on the protesters. He used to do some undercover stuff for Terminus. His squad should be able to lock down the office and coffee shop in case something happens.”

“Good call.” Kurt had forgotten about Ra and his past experience for the other organization. “Then we are going to GR. Yay.” He hated that city. Lots of memories besides it also being a city with the accompanying urban sprawl which was a mess to navigate.

“Don’t sound too excited.” Penny said. “Aren’t you from there?”

“That’s where I was living when the veil broke.” Kurt answered and saw them all adopt pained expressions. “Yeah, happy memories and all that. Anyway, call Ra and I’ll call my pack.”

‘His pack’, that was something he was getting used to. It had actually been a suggestion from Ra who had said they should refer to the werewolf squads as packs for morale reasons. Kurt just felt like he was talking about a pack of cigarettes every time he said it.

Half an hour later, there were a dozen werewolves in one of the Order conference rooms. All of them were giving him the look that he was still uncomfortable with, despite having seen it an awful lot as of late.

“Alright folks we have two missions that I am running. Starting off, does anyone object to me tasking you with an assignment directly rather than through Jay?” When nobody raised a hand or even looked around, he sighed and continued. “Great. Let’s get the hard one out of the way first. Ra, you have experience in espionage, right?”

“Yes, sire.” The alpha ducked his head in a quick nod.

“Great, you will be tasked with handling the situation around the coffee shop and our business in the other unit.” Kurt slid a folder across the table that had some details that Feraz had sent over.

“What do they have against The Captain?” asked one of Ra’s wolves, a fem who looked like she was about to tear out of her uniform top… or at least the sleeves.

“How do you know about The Captain? Ahhh… sorry I don’t know your name.” Kurt asked.

“Aster, sire.” She bowed her head much deeper than Ra had. “We go there pretty often for coffee runs and breakfast while patrolling.”

Kurt tried his best to recall hearing anything about that and apparently his confusion showed because Val spoke up. “Why are you patrolling in BFE Northern Michigan?”

“Why wouldn’t we? We live here now.” Aster answered, doing a head tilt that set her jaw length hair askew except for the two braids that ran around her head like a crown.

“I’m sorry, what?” To say Kurt was surprised was an understatement.

Jade took that opportunity to raise her hand. “Sire, I invited them to live at the farm with us.”

Kurt blinked at her. He then opened his mouth but shut it a moment later. After a few seconds the information made its way where it belonged, and he was able to speak. “You are telling me I have a dozen werewolves living on my property now?”

“Yes, sire.”

“All living in that house?”

“Oh, no sire.” Jade shook her head.

“Oh, that’s…”

“We have a new dugout under the barn and a tunnel running from it to the basement. Only a couple of us live in the house now.” Jade continued her answer.

“And when the hell did this happen?” He looked at Penny and the girls who all gave him bewildered looks.

Jade tapped her finger on the table as she thought. “Hmm, couple weeks back after the thaw hit. We used the contractors you recommended, Val.”

“Hailey and Mark?” The kitsune had a high pitch to her voice like she was a surprised as any of them.

“Yes, of DeVans Builders and Supply.” Jade said excitedly. “Oh, Mark talked at length about you once he found out we were associated and helping you with your work.”

“It was all actually rather simple. We mostly needed them for ventilation and electrical.” Ra said. “We used concrete preforms for most of the tunnel and the dugout itself was pretty simple since it is under the slab of the barn. Then we framed it in like a house before calling them to help with the HVAC.”

Kurt groaned and scrubbed his face with both hands. “UGGGhhhhh. Fine, so your miss-“ He was cut off by Penny suddenly butting in with a nearly manic edge to her voice.

“Is that why there is a third portal in this region?” She was looking at her tablet, frantically tapping at it. “I saw a notice about it and Jay mentioned approoooovvving… ah. I see. Mhm, yup, nothing we can do about it.” She locked her screen and turned back to the room at large.

“What do you mean nothing we can do?” Kurt asked, his eyes focusing intently on his handler.

Penny cleared her throat. “Ahem, it’s, ah, a religious accommodation.”

“Fucking lunatics.” Kurt muttered under his breath. “Fine, welcome aboard but just know that we will be talking about this.” He pointed at Jade and Ra. “Like I was saying, your team will be securing the building downtown and running counter protest operations as you see fit. Also, anyone have any experience as a barista or in food service?”

One of Jade’s people raised his hand. “I worked in a Starbucks for a little while.”

“Great, Calum, you are going to stick to the kids like you are glued to them. You are now their new employee. Your actual mission is to ensure that they remain alive at all costs.” Kurt said. “Ra, one of your team can back him up on that for down time but I also want Hannah to be guarded whenever she is in the city.”

“What about offsite?” Calum asked, looking more than a little nervous.

“Good call, Gus, you are backing them up too.” Kurt said before turning to Jade. “That leaves the four of you to me.”

“Of course. And do you require of us?” Jade replied in a smooth tone, almost like it was rehearsed. Knowing her, it was.

Kurt slid a second folder across to her. “We are going on a little trip down south to hear out a group of paras. What will actually happen is yet to be determined.”

“Yes, sire.” If Jade had a tail in this form Kurt was sure it would be wagging. “When do we leave?”

“Tomorrow morning. They have a meeting a couple days from now, so it gives us some time to get the lay of the land.” Kurt looked around. “Any questions? No? Alright, get to it.”