Trophy Cub - 12. Bears of War

A semi horn honked outside, causing Gunnar and Thomas to run out to the front porch and investigate the commotion.

Parked in front of the house was a twenty-two-foot Ford F650 flatbed truck with removable sides. The cab of the truck was painted in rainbow colors, and the removable sides were airbrushed with portraits of four familiar drag queens, with the words “The She-Wolves” in graffiti-style script.

“Very subtle,” Thomas joked as the extended cab opened and four lean and stylish wolves piled out along with an average looking blond man who must be their human friend Tim.

“We are here, darlings!” Susie exclaimed as the wolves unloaded several suitcases and trunks out of the flatbed. “I know there’s a gallant bear or two around here who can help a lady with her luggage.”

Gunnar ran up to the truck and gave each of the She-Wolves a big bear hug as Thomas began loading his arms with suitcases. Tim stood by shyly waiting to be introduced, but Gunnar pulled him into a hug as well.

“Welcome, Tim,” Gunnar said, “Thank you for agreeing to help us out with this mission of ours. It isn’t your fight, but I appreciate any help we can get.”

“I wouldn’t have heard the end of it if I’d said ‘no.’” Tim replied. “Besides, I like a good werewolf adventure story just as much as the next guy.”

“Gunnar, if you would be so kind as to show us to our rooms,” Lupita said, “I need a change of clothes and to powder my nose. We’ve been cooped up in that truck since the butt-crack of dawn.”

Gunnar grabbed another two armfuls of luggage and led the group into the front hall.

“Oooh!” Linda squealed, “1970’s retro chic! Gunnar you’ll have to tell me who does your decorating!”

“Well, the last time the place was decorated was in 1975 so that makes sense,” Gunnar replied heading up the stairs. “The key to getting fabulous vintage kitsch is to let your home sit empty for fifty years with only a dedicated caretaker to come inside and dust the place once a week.”

In the hall at the top of the stairs, Gunnar pointed out the rooms.

“There are three guest rooms, each with a queen bed. We’ll need to put two of you in each of the larger rooms, and I guess Tim can have the third bed to himself,” he said.

“Story of my life,” Tim commented with a smirk.

“Thomas and I can double-up in the master bedroom,” Gunnar explained, which was followed up by a chorus of giggles from the wolves.

“Double-up,” Linda teased, “Is that what the kids are calling it these days?”

They sorted out the luggage and began moving into their respective rooms when the doorbell rang. Four pairs of wolf ears perked up, and if Gunnar didn’t know better, he’d swear that they nearly started barking.

“That,” Gunnar said, “Should be the security you requested.”

He tromped back down the stairs and opened the front door.

There were six muscular men standing at-ease on the front porch, wearing black cargo pants, black wool caps, and black turtleneck sweaters with the Olafson Security logo embroidered on the left side of their chests. Standing at the front of the group was a man who was older than the other five, but no less fit.

“Roger,” Gunnar said, pulling the CEO of the security company into a hug. “I just thought you were sending the special-ops team, you didn’t tell me you were coming too.”

“Surprise,” Roger replied. “I’ve been sitting behind a desk for long enough that when a really special top-secret assignment comes along, I’m ready for some action. Especially when it involves my dearly-departed friend and boss Gunnar Olafson.”

“It’s Gunnar Bergan this time around, Roger,” Gunnar replied with a grin.

“Wow!” Roger exclaimed. “You’re really digging back into the archives with that one. You haven’t been Gunnar Bergan in what… a hundred twenty years?”

“Something like that,” Gunnar replied. “Come on, let’s get your team inside. We have the dining room converted to a war room so we can discuss the plans.”

“Where is your crew staying?” Gunnar asked as the six men marched into the house and into the dining room to begin working.

“We rented a lakeside cabin that’s literally less than a quarter mile up the road from you. We got settled and walked over here just now.”

“Well, the gang’s all here!” Susie exclaimed walking into the dining room with the three other She-Wolves and Tim following behind her. “These hunky humans are our security for the big night, I assume?”

Roger held out his hand, “Roger Black, CEO of Olafson Security and Special-Ops Commander.”

“Enchanté,” Susie replied taking his hand. “I’m Susie, and these are the She-Wolves. Linda, Dixie, and Little Lupita. Oh… and our roadie Tim of course.”

“Sir, uh… Ma’am, I get that we’re going to be protecting you while you put on a show at the edge of enemy lines as a diversion,” one of Roger’s team said, “But if that truck out there is your mobile stage, how are we going to be positioned so that we’re hidden from the enemy until it’s time to bug out and we have to cover your back during the speedy retreat? Unless we’re all going to hide in the cab until the end and then pile out like some kind of heavily armed clown car, we’re going to be sort of exposed out there and our presence could be viewed as aggression.”

“Oh honey,” Susie replied, “We’ve already figured that one out. You’re going to be hiding in plain sight… as our backup dancers. Lupita! The costumes!”

Lupita opened a trunk that had been left in the front hallway and pulled out six custom-made sequin and lamé one-piece jumpsuits with hoods and masks to cover the men’s faces.

“We’ll have you try them on and we’ll make quick alterations, but there’s ample room to wear these over your body armor, helmets, and sidearms, and space to keep your rifles strapped to your back and hidden during the performance, but they’ll break away in a mere second when the show’s over so you can keep our asses covered as we run like hell.”

“We’re going to be backup dancers?” Another of the men asked.

“You bet your hot ass, cutie,” Dixie replied, “And we have just two days to teach you the choreography, so we’re going to have to get started, like yesterday.”

Roger scrutinized the jumpsuits. “Let me guess, we’re going to do Cher?”

“Puh-leeze, darling,” Susie replied, “For that pack of little monsters? It’s going to be Lady Gaga!”

****

They spent the next two days going over every detail of the plan and for Roger’s team, many hours on the back patio learning the choreography for approximately twelve minutes of performance time. The special-ops team were all professionals and were trained to seamlessly blend in with their surroundings on assignment to provide the best security possible. This was the first time that the surroundings required them to be backup dancers for a drag show. Although they tried to remain professional during rehearsals, the expressions on their faces gave away the fact that they were loving every minute of it.

The She-Wolves’ DJ friend had put together a 22-minute non-stop Lady Gaga mix. The music would start with Chromatica I blasting through the speakers into the woods followed by a mix of Gaga songs as a light show was projected on the mobile stage’s white curtain. After 10 minutes, the music would segue into Chromatica II as the curtain dropped, and they would all be in their opening positions for the first performance song. Hopefully, all the pack’s wolves will be there to see it and leave the pack house undefended.

They met in the dining room/war room for one last tactical review at noon on the day of the full moon.

“We’ll head down separately,” Roger said kicking off the meeting. “Alpha Team, comprising Gunnar and Thomas, will drive down in Gunnar’s Jeep. Beta Team, comprising Special-Ops and the She-Wolves will travel in the mobile stage and the SO’s SUV’s. We will head down route 57 to Green Bay, pick up Interstate 43 and continue south to the junction of route 147 in the town of Maribel. We will rendezvous at the Park-N-Ride lot just off the freeway exit to prep the stage for final setup. From there it’s a short drive down route 147 to the pack territory. Dixie?”

“Timing is going to be crucial,” Dixie began, having the most knowledge of the pack’s full moon schedules. “Sun goes down at 5:56 pm. We need to have the stage parked in place here before that time, but no earlier than 5:30 pm.”

Dixie pointed on the map the location along the western border of the pack’s territory that had easy access to public roads.

“The pack will begin to gather in the sacred clearing at 6:00 pm which is located here in the woods to the west of the pack house, and about a mile from where our stage will be parked. Since all pre-run activity will be on the western side of the house, it will be safe for our Alpha Team to make their way through the woods on the eastern side here as soon as the sun sets, stopping short of the open grass field between the woods and the pack house itself. Kane will request that everyone arrive at 6:00 pm so that he can make his monthly speech, but many of the pack females skip the speech and wait until just a few minutes before moonrise to arrive in the sacred clearing, so we can’t have Alpha Team enter the pack house early.

“Moonrise is at precisely 6:31 pm tonight. At that time three things must take place simultaneously. First, the pack will remove their clothing and shift into their wolves and wait for Kane to howl to start the run. Second, the music on the mobile stage must start at that exact moment so that it will catch them off guard in between shifting and starting the run. Third, the music will be the cue to our Alpha Team to make their way across the open grass field and into the nearest door of the pack house. Gunnar?”

“When Thomas and I enter the pack house,” Gunnar continued, “We’ll have approximately twenty minutes to find the human and get him back outside. As long as we’re within that twenty-minute window, the pack should still be over on the western border, and we can make our way back across the east-side woods to the Jeep. Dixie has informed us that the pack ‘pets’ are usually housed two levels down in the sub-basement of the house. If they have taken him in and out of the house in the last day or so, we should be able to find his scent and follow it quickly. If not, we’re just going to have to locate stairs to the sub-basement as fast as possible and look for a row of doors marked ‘Pet Kennels 1-5’ and the human will be in one of them. Susie?”

“We leave the extra SUV’s and the removable sides from the front and end of the mobile stage in the lot by the freeway,” Susie began with her section of the briefing, “And Beta Team will all ride on the flatbed the rest of the way to the destination. When we arrive at our location on the western border, we’ll need to maintain silence until sunset to avoid attracting any attention, so that would be a good time to get into costume. At 5:56 pm we need stand up the backdrop, the stage props, hook up the speaker towers, microphone stands, and stage lights. We then have to set up the PVC curtain frames around the side and ends of the flatbed facing the ‘audience,’ attach the bottom of the white curtains to the bottom of the frame and hoist the top of the curtains up to the top of the frame to make them stretched taut. All of that must be completed prior to 6:30 pm, but we’ve practiced the setup enough times that we have it down to 20 minutes, which leaves us a little more than ten minutes to spare. At 6:31 pm Tim hits the button on the control panel inside the cab. The music starts blasting and the light show on the curtain begins. At 6:41 when Chromatica II starts playing, Tim hits the controls to drop the curtains and we’re in our positions on stage for the first number. We sing, we dance, yadda-yadda-yadda, for twelve minutes. A pack of wolves watches us from the edge of the woods wondering ‘What the fuck is happening?’ The instant the last song finishes, the Special-Ops crew rip off their jumpsuits and pull out the rifles, the She-Wolves shift into our wolves in case of a fight, and Tim hits the fucking gas and gets us back on the road and the hell out of there. If stage shit tips over on the flatbed as we make our exit, it doesn’t matter. Keep going. We can replace stuff, but we can’t replace people. Thomas?”

“After leaving the pack territory,” Thomas said, “We are to make our way back up route 147 to the freeway. In case we are followed, it will not be safe to rendezvous in the open at the Park-N-Ride lot again. Instead of turning left into the lot, turn right onto North Packer Drive for about a quarter mile and turn right again into the drive for the Cherney Maribel Caves Park. It closes at dusk so the gates will be locked. First one there, break the lock on the park gate, and we’ll rendezvous in the parking lot outside the trail to the cave entrance. If all is clear, everyone helps dismantle the mobile stage and secure the flatbed for freeway travel and then we split up. Special Ops retrieves their vehicles from the lot, and Alpha Team and Special Ops head back to Sturgeon Bay with the human. She-Wolves head back to Chicago. The mobile stage should be the only vehicle that the wolf pack sees during the operation, so if they do attempt to track it following the rescue, they’ll be going in the opposite direction as the vehicles transporting the human and they’ll end up way outside of their Wisconsin territorial range.

“If either team has been followed by pack wolves back to the rendezvous site, we will make our way on foot as a group inside the cave entrance and use that position as a tactical advantage to limit the number of wolves we have to fight at one time. They should only be able to come at us one or two at a time through the cave entrance, and Gunnar and I can fight them off one-by-one if need be until they give up and run away, or there simply aren’t any wolves left to fight.”

Thomas finished his piece of the briefing and looked around the room.

Gunnar stood up. “If there are no more questions or clarifications, I think we’re as ready as we’re going to be. There’s a big lunch ready for all of us in the kitchen. We’re going to need our energy tonight. Let’s eat up, load up, and get on the move. Operation Kindred is a go.”

The team all stood and began moving to the kitchen to grab something to eat before packing the vehicles for the operation.

Thomas held back in the dining room, looking at Gunnar with a big grin on his face.

“What are you so happy about?” Gunnar asked him grimly. “Don’t tell me you’re horny now.”

“I told you before,” Thomas replied. “I love it when a plan comes together, but there’s one part of the plan that we haven’t talked about yet…

“Once we rescue this human, are you going to give him the choice?”

“Of course I am,” Gunnar replied, “He has just as much right to know about his lineage and be given the opportunity to choose to become a werebear as the rest of us.”

“Then you’re ready to be a Papa?” Thomas asked, still grinning.

Gunnar didn’t answer immediately, looking away from Thomas at the maps, drawings and models littering the dining table.

“I don’t know if I have what it takes to be a Papa,” Gunnar finally answered. “I was Nils’s Cub for so long, I never gave thought about having a cub of my own. But, if that’s what it’s going to take to save this human and bring him into the werebear fold, then I guess it’s time for me to step up to the plate, so to speak.”

“Good man,” Thomas replied, patting Gunnar on the shoulder. “I think that you’re going to be a great Papa if that’s the choice he makes. Now, let’s go get some lunch before those petite and dainty She-Wolves of yours eat everything in sight.”