Warming The Cold One - 10. All Is Not Right My Aztec Friend

Jay, Tala and Hawk walk in the front door of Alexanders house. “Uncle Alexander?”

“In here Tala.” The three men enter Alexander’s study. “Oh, hello Hawk. What are you doing here?”

“I invited him so we could have a talk about a few things. He thinks he might be able to unlock a few mysteries surrounding our chat yesterday. Also he is going to be the pack representative to the general council.”

Alexander looked perplexed. “How would he know anything?”

Hawk spoke up first. “I wasn’t a stray like everyone thinks. I was sent here as a young pup for protection. Michael hid me away from everyone. If my father had known you were here, I would have been sent somewhere else. He wanted me to never be found.”

“Why would it matter if I was here? Did he know me? Did I scare him?”

Tala looked over to Hawk and got a silent permission. “Hawk was supposed to be hidden from everyone, including family.”

“Family?” Alexander was now even more confused.

Tala tried again. “His father got your sister Sarah pregnant. He is the lost link I was looking for.”

Alexander stopped in mid breath. “My sister Sarah? Your mother? You?”

Hawk spoke up once again. “Alexander, sir, Tala is my half-brother.”

Alexander sat for a few seconds. “My son was so mean to you as a child. You never said anything. Why? What is the big secret?”

“I’m sure if you do the math it might dawn on you. Tala and I are both bred of four clans. Our father was 60% Amazon and 40% Saharan. My mother was 50% Celtic and 50% American. By law, our existence was illegal. Unlike Tala, I did not gain the ancient speak. I did get the strength of 3 wolves and the cunning of 5 wolves. I could have been a worthy enforcer, but it was decided that it would be too high profile.”

“I understand.” Alexander looked solemn. “Please call me Uncle from now on.”

“So how are you handling all this?” Tala and Jay are lying on the spare bed in his uncle's home. “Your world keeps getting bigger by the minute.”

“I am still a bit overwhelmed.” Tala turned toward Jay. “I just need to have things slow down for a little while. I have been too busy the few days to ask Toby about something.”

“I understand that.” Jay put his hand on Tala's shoulder. “What did you need to know?”

“How am I going to pay for all the things I have to do now? Toby cannot continue to fly us everywhere. I mean I have money, but I am not sure how I can get it without have to explain to a lot of people why I need it.” Tala tried to show the worry on his face. “I have to figure out something to tell my manger and my agent pretty soon.”

“The truth is not going to help is it?” Jay laughed. “Well the only way I can think of is to either change to a lycan company or to tell them the truth. I will talk to Toby when I can about finding a replacement if you want.”

Tala sighed. “I agree. We have to get things settled and the money flowing to make sure they are paid for.”

“The view is awesome.” Hawk has his face glued to the airplane window. “I never imagined I would fly anywhere in my life.”

“You will be doing a lot of flying for a while.” Toby answers. “You will soon find it is a great way to get work done or books read.”

“Toby, did you find anything out on your calls earlier?” Jay turns to Toby as he turns toward him. “Tala is really worried about the back of house stuff.”

“I did get some answers.” Toby motions for Tala to listen. “I talked with some financial people I know and the money is the easy part. All of your funds are invested in normal accounts and we can move those over to a different bank. The agent issue is a bit more complicated but we are still in good shape.”

“How are we in good shape?” Tala mused for more information.

“Well your management company is Saharan owned.” Toby paused to let the look of surprise clear from the faces of everyone else. “They will be very well equipped to handle your move out of the spotlight. However, that then has us relying on them to do the presswork. I do not see that as a huge issue and we will just have them move at our schedule if they want to get paid.”

Jay thought a few seconds. “So we are good?”

“On those fronts, we are fine. There is one other item I have been looking at and it also is going our way.” Toby pulled out a sheet of paper from his bag. “The deeds to ten thousand acres along the border of North Dakota and Manitoba are in process right now.”

Hawk snapped his head toward the others. “You own the Red Clan's land?”

“I found the deeds to your clan's last bit of land with a little digging. Half is in North Dakota and the other half is in Canada. Currently the land is being used as a refuse for Great Plains wolves and Eastern Timber wolves.” Toby continued to read some details. “It is perfectly placed for the matching of the two types of wolves your family has.”

Hawk looked puzzled. “Two types? Our dad was an Eastern Timber.”

Tala looked at Hawk. “There are two main types of American wolf, The Great Plains and the Eastern Timber. What was your mom?”

“I never saw her transform. I don't really know.” Hawk looked sad.

“I know she was a Great Plains.” Toby stated with a matter of fact tone. “She was the more mixed of your two parents. Her family had been just joined that pack when your grandmother married your grandfather. At the time, they thought she was Northern Rocky Mountain wolf. That was part of the cover-up to hide the Great Plains Americans.”

Hawk just sat in awe for a minute. “There are still many wolves there. How much family do we have on that land?”

Tala looked at Hawk. “That dear brother is what our next trip will tell us. I know that in the core of that land is a lot of people I know personally that are not going to believe this.”

Toby pointed at the window again. “We are now about two minutes away from the airstrip so we should get ready to land.” They buckled their seat belts and the plane landed on Toby’s airstrip.

Master Taj is in his posh office when the phone rings. “It’s about time you called Vukasin. Do you have the dirt we need?”

Vukasin quietly answers, “No sir. I have looked and there is just nothing I can get my hands on to stop this. Björn is clean, Tala is spotless and there are no records left on where all the wolves went after they crossed the line together.”

Taj exclaims back in anger, “you incompetent fool! How many are there that are four bloodlines?”

Vukasin gives Taj the best report he has. “To the best of our research, there are five wolves total in the world. Two of them are in custody because it happened outside North America. We are sure they were accidental, and they are being handled and not being given the gift. They also have no American in them. The third is of course, Tala. The last two have no history but we can confirm have a decent amount of American blood. We think one is living in Southern Canada and the other was put in to hiding somewhere near Montana. Faolán never was able to buy any information on them.”

Taj still sounds angry, “find me some information. We have to do something to stop this from going too far.”

Hawk, Jay, Toby and Tala were sitting in Toby’s lounge when Hawk decided to ask the impossible to answer question. “Do you have a plan on how you are going to deal with your family?”

Tala looked crestfallen. “Not really. I have no idea how to explain it to them without them laughing at me.”

Jay offered up a quick solution. “Why not start with the groups in Canada? They are not as closely related and maybe easier to deal with.”

Tala sighed before he came up with a small idea. “Toby, is there anyway we can find other references to the painting my family has? I’m guessing it wasn’t the only one that is still in the area”

Toby already had thought of that. “I thought about that too. I have a few calls out to art dealers in the Midwest that deal with Native American and First Nation art. I hope to hear back soon.”

Hawk, not being anything but blunt asked, “don’t you talk to your mom anymore? Just ask her if her parents or grandparents told any weird stories.”

Tala looked horrified. “We had a falling out not that long ago and I doubt this is the topic that would mend fences.”

Jay spoke up. “Don’t be afraid of your mother.”

“I’m not afraid of my mother,” Tala defended. “Fine, I’m scared out of my mind. How do you say ‘Mom, we’re wolves’ and not get laughed out of the house?”

“I actually think she might already know.” Hawk put his hand up to stop Tala when he stared at him. “Remember when I said they were hiding you in Arizona? Someone had to convince her to go there. I don’t think you will have to work very hard.”

Tala sighed. “I’ll work up the nerve and call her. It might take me a while so let’s start planning other things, first.”

Björn walks into the conference room at the North American lycan headquarters building. He notices the brand-new sign on the door that says ‘Circle Room’ and very ornate decorations and chairs. “I hope I am not late.”

Rolf jumps up from his chair and shakes Björn’s hand. “Not at all. Raul and I were the first ones here. Ulrik just sent me a message that he will be here in about 5 minutes. I’m sure Vukasin will be here shortly as well. Have a seat in the chair here next to me.” Rolf points to the chair and proceeds to sit down in his chair. “I hope your flight back was good.”

“Yes, it was good. I had never flown business class before, but Tala insisted I do so until we can get a jet leased for me.” Björn took a tired breath. “How do your clans pay for all of this?”

Raul speaks up at this point. “We have very deep resources. I would contact Faolan and see if he knows of any American clan resources you and Tala can tap in to. He might have already emailed you some when he set up your council account.”

Björn felt confused but kept a neutral face. “I’ll have to check on that. Thank you, Raul.”

Ulrik walks through the door followed by Vukasin. Ulrik remarks, “great, we are all here. Shall we start with the important items first?” See everybody else nod, he continues. “On the table are all the proposals on changes to the main charter to reintegrate the power of the Circle back into the normal day-to-day workings of the council. The first set was drafdted based on the council before the loss of the fifth clan, the second set is a slightly modern version drafted by the council lawyers, and the third is a more handcrafted version that was drafted by Vukasin’s team directly. They are all very similar so let’s each read through them and see what ideas we like and what we don’t.”

They start to read through the proposals. Each proposal ranges from fifty to seventy-five pages long. Björn got through to the last one and he started to see some major changes the other two did not have. He looks over at Ulrik to get his attention. “Can I ask you a question Ulrik?” Ulrik looks up at him. “Is there somewhere on the proposals that show which one is which?”

“Excellent question Björn. No, they are unmarked on purpose. I thought it best to not influence based on where it came from. My staff printed them and placed them in the room before anyone arrived so that not even I could say where each came from.” Ulrik took a sip of water before continuing. “Do you see something wrong?”

“No, nothing wrong. Two seem very much related but the third is drastically different and I feel has some very aggressive language. There are also some concerning clauses.” Björn looked around the room to judge the faces of the other men. “Were we going to enact one of these or did we want to craft a fourth final proposal from them all?”

Vukasin spoke up quickly. “I doubt we need to waste time creating a fourth proposal. I’m sure one of these three will work fine.”

Raul was next to speak up. “I agree with Björn. I don’t think some of the language is going to fit very well. I know what things were like before. My clan has records from the old circle that they shared with me and it was a bit too stodgy for what we need now.” Raul held up one of the packets. “The second packet I can tell was written by a lawyer because I cannot understand it.” Raul turned to Björn laughing a bit. “Can you?”

Björn chuckled a bit. “No. That’s the point of constitutional law though. Never cut and dry so you can still get re-elected. I am guessing this is the same, so they don’t get fired for taking a stand on anything.”

Rolf looked carefully at Vukasin before he spoke up. “This third packet is concerning to me. All the stodge of the first, the confusing language of the second and then mix in some very odd clauses. I’m not in favor of any of them right now. I have to side with Björn that we need to pick though what we have and draft a fourth.” Rolf turned to Ulrik. “I think we should take some time and breakdown what we like about all three and what we think is missing. However, we should do that after lunch.”

Ulrik turn to look at everyone in the room before speaking. “Yes, I think lunch would be a good idea. Please keep the proposals in this room to keep our work confidential. See you all in two hours.”

“You did good in there.” Björn looks up from his lunch to see Raul walking towards him. “I didn’t expect to see you in a Guatemalan restaurant.”

“The food looked really good and smelled really good.” Björn motioned for him to sit down.

“I’m impressed. You didn’t get anything Americanized at all.” Raul grabs the extra fork at the table and steals some of the dobladas. “Hope you don’t mind.”

Björn laughs. “Not at all. I mean Tala is paying for everything right now.”

Raul looks serious for a minute. “I saw the look you had earlier. Something isn’t right. Is there something I don’t know?”

Björn puts down his fork. “I should have said something to Tala and Toby before I flew out here, but I haven’t gotten anything from Faolán. I don’t have a council account, I have to charge everything to Tala’s credit card he put me on, I don’t have a council office, I don’t have any staff to hire.”

Raul looked a little taken aback. “What? Rolf and I talked to Faolán before he left the senior council that day. He said he would have his staff assistant contact you and Tala to set everything up. You are supposed to only pay for transportation and the council covers food and staff. Have you set up the council stipend account?”

“We were under the impression that the clan paid for everything.” Björn looked confused. “Toby does the same, right?”

“No, my friend. You’re being cheated.” Raul got up and left the restaurant.

“Hello?” Toby turned from his computer. “Good Afternoon, Björn. What can I do for you?”

“I have a weird question for you,” Björn began. “Do you pay Rolf or does Rolf get money from elsewhere? Before you answer, know I am very serious here.”

“I don’t understand, but yes. I pay Rolf the standard council rate as well as all of his expenses.” Toby started sounding like he didn’t like where this was going. “Why?”

“I was having lunch and Raul followed up on a conversation that we were having. It got interrupted by the Circle coming to order.” Björn took a deep breath. “He said I was being cheated and I think I agree with him.”

“You think Tala is cheating you,” Toby questioned.

Björn tried to sound reassuring. “No, Tala has done nothing but give to me. The council never gave me anything. I don’t have an office here, I don’t have staff here, I don’t have a council account, and Raul said something about a council stipend that I should have set up.”

“Björn, you just got there. How could you have a staff?” Toby was really starting to get confused. “You have to hire them. You should have an account though. Talk to Rolf and see if he can get you in touch with IT.”

“Something doesn’t sound right. Either Raul is messing with me, or I’m having tricks played on me.” Björn started sounding worried. “I’ll try to talk to Rolf before we reconvene.”

As he was getting back to the Circle Room, Björn saw Rolf and called out to him. “Rolf, do you have second?”

Rolf come over to Björn. “Only a second, the other are already back and waiting on us.”

Björn felt rushed now. “I’ll try to make it fast. How long did it take to get set up here?”

Rolf frowned. “Ages! Send a message to my assistance council email and she can get you a checklist.”

“How?” Björn looked curious. “I have no account access.”

“Gentleman,” Ulrik yelled from the Circle Room. “Do you care to join us now?”

Björn was upset that they were cut off, but he and Rolf entered the Circle Room and they started brainstorming for the next three hours.

“Can we stop for the day?” Vukasin took a sip of water and continued. “We have been at this all afternoon and I am tired. Can we come back tomorrow with fresh eyes and about ten hours of sleep?”

Ulrik and Raul nodded. Ulrik spoke up, “Agreed. See you all in the morning.”

As Rolf was leaving the room, he turned to Björn. “I’m going to make some calls for you and see what I can do to solve some of the issues you brought up to me earlier.”

“Thank you, Rolf. I hope to hear from you soon.” The two went in opposite directions. Rolf toward his office and Björn towards a modest hotel.”

Toby’s phone rings. “Hello Rolf, I thought you might be calling tonight.”

“I take it that Björn called you earlier,” Rolf questioned. “He had some major issues in his mind.”

“He saw Raul at lunch, and it raised a few questions.” Toby sighed. “I figured if you called me too then I’d have to look into it further.”

Rolf seemed surprised. “Look into what?”

Toby took a breath. “I think the council has been cheating him. If I’m right, they have been cheating you too.”

“What? How would they cheat me,” Rolf questioned.

“I guess Raul said that he gets paid by the council,” Toby replied. “I need to verify things, but I’m think someone is stealing money from us. I’m going to make a few calls and I will call you back.”

“Please do,” Rolf said. “I’ll have my phone on.”

Toby hung up the phone and pulled out an address book. He found the phone number for someone and placed a call.

The phone was answered in Spanish. “¿Aló?” (Hello?)

Toby responded in okay Spanish. “Estoy buscando a Edwardo.”(I’m looking for Edwardo.)

The response came back, “este es Edwardo Tsit.” (This is Edwardo Tsit.)

Happy he got the right number, Toby contined. “Siento llamar tan tarde. Este es Tobias Whelan del Clan Celta.” (I'm sorry to call so late. This is Tobias Whelan of the Celtic Clan)

“Buenas noches Toby,” (Good Evening Toby) Edwardo said jovially. “I’ll switch to English to make this easier. What is so important they you are calling me directly?”

Toby took a deep breath. “Edwardo, I have a few questions for you that might sound silly but hear me out.”

Edwardo got a little curious. “Ask away!”

“As you know, there has been big shake ups in the council,” Toby began.

Edwardo laughed, “I would say so.”

Toby continued without laughing, “well, the Circle met today, and some interesting things came up that didn’t pertain to the business they were discussing. I guess at lunch, Raul ran in to the new American clan circle representative and put some doubts in his mind about how the council is treating him.”

Edwardo had a perplexed tone now. “I know that certain parties are not happy but what kind of concerns would I be able to address?”

Toby thought about where to start. “I’ll start with the one that has me concerned the most. I pay Rolf well, but I was told you don’t pay for Raul’s expenses.”

Edwardo answered immediately. “Now I know why Rolf likes you so much. I’d never pay Raul double now would I pay for expenses. The council takes care of everything but the plane and the fuel. He has a furnished apartment, meals, staff and a stipend all paid just like Rolf has.”

Toby sounded shocked by this. “No Rolf doesn’t. The only money Rolf gets is what I pay him directly.”

Edwardo gets a slightly fatherly tone to his voice. “Maybe you need to ask him why he is taking money from both places.”

Toby answered back a bit snappier than he should have. “Rolf is not a thief. We all pay our pack dues and it has always been crappy to not have the council cover anything financially. You know how expensive guards and a staff are.”

Edwardo stopped for a second. “You are serious amigo? You pay for everything?”

Toby came back a little irritated still. “Yes, we do. The Celtic Clan pays out about 2.5 million dollars a year on top of pack dues to support out council representatives.”

“¡Mierda Santa! You should not be paying that! That’s what the pack dues are for,” Edwardo exclaimed before he could stop himself.

“Thank you, Edwardo.” Toby sounded somber. “I am going to track down Faolán as well as I think I might need to call my lawyers to file a lawsuit again the Lycan Council. They owe my clan about 150 million dollars.”

“I think I’m going to be calling mine as well. If they have done this to you, what have they done to me?”