Blue moon - By Lori Handeland Page 0,30

wolves like these. I will teach you things you never thought to learn."

There was something cryptic in that statement, but my mind was still fuddled with sex and the mystery of the missing plastic.

"Clyde's okay with this?" I asked.

"It was Clyde's idea."

I frowned. Why hadn't Clyde told me?

I moved down the back hall to the weapons room and Mandenauer followed me. The rifle I'd been assigned for use in tactical situations had never been out of the case. There weren't a helluva lot of tactical situations in Miniwa. Until lately anyway.

For long-range shooting I preferred my own rifle, but since no one had seen fit to tell me of my change in status from Three Adam One to Mandenauer's backup, my rifle was home in the gun safe. I'd have to make do with city-issue.

"What's so special about these wolves, besides what you already told me?" I pulled out my gun and checked it over. "They're overly aggressive, extremely violent, fearless."

"And smart." I glanced at him and he shrugged. "The virus appears to increase their brainpower."

"You've got to be kidding me."

"I do not kid."

I wasn't surprised. After pulling out a box of ammo, I relocked the gun cabinet. "So we've got super-pissed-off wolves that are also very smart." My gaze met his. "How smart?"

Something flickered in the depths of his eerily light eyes. Not fear but close.

"How smart, Mandenauer? What are we dealing with here?"

He sighed and glanced away. "Human-level intelligence."

I couldn't seem to find my voice, a novelty for me. When I did, all I could manage was, "That's... That's... "

What I meant to say was "impossible." Mandenauer filled in another word entirely. "Hazardous. I know. I've seen them formulate a plan, work together, and destroy those who try to destroy them. It's - "

"Creepy."

He raised a brow. "I was going to say ' fascinating.'"

"You would," I muttered.

"Shall we go?"

"Shouldn't we have a plan of our own?"

"Oh, I do, Officer. I do."

"What is it?"

"Come with me and you'll see."

I really didn't like the sound of that.

An hour later, I didn't like the looks of the plan, either. We were deep in the forest, high up in a tree.

Not that I hadn't been in trees before; I'd just never liked it much. I preferred to hunt on the ground.

Mandenauer had vetoed that idea immediately.

"One thing these wolves cannot do, yet, is fly. The only place we are safe is in the sky."

There was one word in that statement that bugged me quite a bit. I wasn't going to let it pass. "Yet?" I repeated.

Mandenauer had spent the day scouting the woods and found a tree stand big enough for two, which he'd confiscated for our use. Since it was June, no one would care. Hunting season was still three months away.

"The virus evolves," he murmured. "It is very upsetting."

"Upsetting? Do the Centers for Disease Control know about this mutating virus? How about the president?"

"Everyone who needs to know does."

Yeah, right. Perhaps I'd make a little call to the CDC in the morning.

"Don't we need bait?" I asked. "A sheep or something?"

"No. They will come. It is only a matter of time."

The light dawned. "We're the bait."

Mandenauer didn't answer, which was answer enough.

"I don't like this."

"Do you have a better idea, Jessie?"

"We could go searching for them in the daylight, when they're sleeping."

"These animals disappear in the daylight."

"Poof! Shazam! They're invisible?"

"Hardly, Officer. But believe me, it is easier to pick them off one by one in the night than waste days trying to find an animal that isn't there."

Isn't there? The guy didn't make any sense. But he was right about one thing - he knew more than me about these wolves - so I'd let him be the leader. For now.

The moon was headed toward full and shiny bright. The night had a nip. Warm evenings would not come to the north woods for at least a few weeks.

I wanted to ask Mandenauer a hundred things. Where had he seen wolves like these before? Had he been able to wipe them out before they did serious harm? Where was he from? Were there others like him?

But he put his finger to his lips, then pointed to the silver-tinged forest. We had to be quiet. Wolves could hear for miles, and these could probably hear for hundreds of miles.

I settled in to wait, something I was very good at. Though patience might seem against my nature, patience was needed to hunt, and I'd been hunting over half of