Knight was taking five when his phone started playing “Highway to Hell”. He took it out of his pocket, looked at the number, unsure of it. “Hello?”
“Mr. Knight?” came a crisp voice at the end of the line.
“Yeah,” he answered, “Who’s this?”
“This is Mr. Grayson, of Grayson, Temple and Trujillo. We are attorneys for Flux-Carson, and–”
“What?”
“…wreckage of a plane that your partner was on. We –”
“Where!” Knight jumped up, as the bar turned to look at him.
“…have the black box recording. We think you should listen to it–”
“Where? Where is it?”
“In our office.”
“The plane. Where is the plane?”
“We think you should listen to this–”
“Goddammit! Gimme a straight fuckin’ answer!”
“Come to our office downtown and we’ll explain everything.”
“Shit!” Knight said to the phone as Grayson hung up. “Fuckin’ lawyers!””
Paulie looked over. “They found him?”
Knight looked up. Paulie said, uncharacteristically quiet and gentle, “Go, come back as soon as you can.”
“Migh’ not be t’night.”
“Go before I rip you another one. Valko and I got this. It’s slow tonight anyway.” He waved his hand. “I’ll give Valko a ride home. Go on.”
Knight dashed into the kitchen, telling Valko, “Think they found ‘im.”
Valko looked relieved. “I hope so.”
“He’s alive,” Knight said. He’s got to be.
Knight jumped on the bike, roared it to life and had no idea where he was going.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Twenty minutes later he threw open the glass doors leading into the attorney’s offices. The receptionist looked up, and Knight snapped, “Grayson. Now.”
“You are – ”
“Expected. NOW.”
The receptionist slowly punched in numbers while Knight paced. “Mr. Grayson will be–”
Knight threw open the door past the receptionist and walked in. “Sir! You can’t–” He slammed shut the door and glared at the first person who crossed his path. “Grayson’s office. Where’s it?”
“Ah – ah, against the wall down — down there?” he pointed to Knight’s right.
Knight stormed down the cubicle’s hallways, heading to the wall. People dove out of his way, or peered out of their cubes to see who this man was, walking with a purpose. A man stood in his way for half a second too long, and Knight gave him a shove into the cubicle wall.
“Hey!” the man yelled.
Knight flipped him the finger and kept walking. He got to the offices against the wall, and all of them had names on them. Stomping behind what looked like the secretarial pool, he found Greyson’s office and shoved open the door.
The man was seated, looking out the window of his office. “I expected you here fifteen minutes ago,” he said.
“Got lost,” Knight said, slamming the door shut.
The man casually turned his chair around, his fingers making a steeple. He looked the embodiment of calm, in a crisp suit, a black goatee and a bald head. Knight knew that his violence would be like an ocean tide against a cliff. Knight took four deep breaths, then asked, “What the fuck is going on?”
“We have the black box recording,” he said, and leaned over to his computer. “I would suggest you listen to it before running off.”
Knight walked over to the desk. Grayson hit a few keys on the computer and there was nothing but what sounded like thumps, and the rush of wind.
“Hell…o, Gabri…el,” came Mal’s voice.
Knight put both hands on the desk and leaned forward to listen more closely.
“Mmm, hello, my Eros,” he could hear Gabriel’s voice.“I see you’ve healed my Mark.” There was a strange sound, like a man trying to speak but couldn’t.
“Mother fucker,” Knight growled.
Next he heard another violent snarl, then the rush of wind, then a crash, screech of metal, then nothing.
“Is he…?”
“We didn’t find him in the wreckage.”
“So where the fuck’s the plane?”
“I could give you coordinates, but would you know what to do with them?”
“Bring me there, an’ I’ll find him. An’ the motherfucker who did this.”
“We have heroes on the scene. We wanted you to be aware of this possible threat against you.”
Kord was right, Knight thought. Whatever got Mal would come after me next, he said. “I ain’ gonna stand by an’ wait f’r you–”
The phone rang. Grayson put a hand up. “Excuse me, that’s our search team.” He picked up the phone and said, “Hello,” in that crisp, calm voice. “Yes. Very good. I’ll let him know, thank you.” Grayson hung up the phone and said calmly, “They’ve found him. Alive.”
“Where, goddammit!”
“45.58 North, 78.36 West.”
Knight swiped a piece of paper, wrote it down. “I’m goin’ to Detroit airport, gonna hire me a plane, an’ gonna have ’em bring me there.”
“Have you ever jumped out of a plane before, Mr. Knight? Because it’s in the middle of the Canadian Wilderness.” He said, “Trust us.”
Knight leaned in very close, getting right into Grayson’s face and said, “Fuck. You.” Then he turned on his heel and walked out.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The pilot brightened up. “Oh, you know Scott Angrier? Can you get me an Angry Emerald action figure, version one?”
“I’ll get you whatever you want. Jus’ fly me here.” Knight thrust the paper at the pilot.
“That’s right in the middle of–”
“I know.”
“There’s no place to land there.”
“I’m gonna jump outta the plane.”
“Ever done that before?”
“Nope. Jus’ fly low, as close to a meadow as y’ can.”
“Fly low?”
Knight grinned. “I c’n do this.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The pilot ignored the klaxons saying that the door was open and it was too low for a jumper. He’s going to die, the pilot thought, glancing back. He overrode the lights, first showing an angry red. He changed it to yellow, and flew low to a meadow just about a half mile from the coordinates. “God help you,” he said, flipping the light to green. Knight had thirty seconds to jump and clear the plane before he passed the meadow.
He banked away from the meadow, and thought he could see a big cat on the ground, not moving. “Mountain lion. Shit,” the pilot whispered. He went back around, and the mountain lion was gone by the second pass – and there was no man in the meadow.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Jackson was busy making dinner. They were stabilizing the man that they had brought back – half man, half beast. They would trek back to Steelhead in the morning, at the same time that a helicopter would be on its way to pick up the man.
Flux-Carson spared no expense for this man, whoever he is, thought Jackson, stirring the pot over the sterno. A full search team of fifteen people – some supes – expecting to wander through this wilderness looking for a downed plane. The pilot and co-pilot survived and were in the hospital at Steelhead, the pilot suffering from a broken arm, the copilot from just a few cuts and abrasions; both having been found by heroes patrolling the area.
Right now, the man was given fluids and watched over by the nurse. The man was a supe as well, most likely, since he was healing pretty quickly. But he hadn’t woken up out of his unconsciousness. The doctor said he had a concussion, and didn’t want to force him to wake, in case his healing hadn’t kicked into his brain cavity yet.
Jackson tasted the stew and looked up, spoon still at his mouth, and saw a leopard sitting there.
The leopard growled, sides heaving.
“N – nice kitty.”
It roared. Jackson dropped the spoon and backed away from the sterno, looking for a knife.
Then it humphed, stuck its nose in the air, sniffing. Calmly, it walked across camp while Jackson put his hand on the paring knife and held it up, like a cross against a vampire. The big cat looked at the knife, looked at him, gave him another huff, and walked across the camp. It went right into the tent with the man in it.
Jackson heard a shriek, and Davina ran out of the tent with a scream. “There’s a – there’s a – ” She ran into Victor, the team leader. “A big cat in there!”
Victor pulled out a pistol and stepped into the tent. He stopped, seeing that the leopard was rubbing its head against the man’s neck and shoulders. It was purring.
Since the man was a half-beast…”Well, I’ll be damned,” Victor said, putting the pistol away. “Davina, don’t worry, I think he’s safe.”
The leopard kept rubbing against the beast-man, and then it sat down on the floor on its haunches when Davina came in to check the IV. Davina stared at the leopard, Victor filling the threshold of the tent. “Hi,” she said to the cat, and smiled big.
The cat huffed. As soon as Davina finished, the cat put its big paws on the gurney again, and nuzzled at the man. Victor and Davina left him to it.
That night, the cat had somehow gotten the man’s other arm down and it sat there, calmly as you please, with the beast-man’s hand atop its head.