Aztec Treasure Ch. 41-50

Frank Grimes' POV

Leesburg Executive Airport

Maria was right. I don't know why I didn't see it before now! Kidnapping wasn't a Sons of Tezcatlipoca move unless it was a prelude to torture. This whole production at the airport didn't make any sense.

"Frank?"

"She's right. Killing the First Husband before the President fits the pattern, but you don't. Unless..."

"Julio's not here because he's at ARROWHEAD! Son of a BITCH! He's going after my family!"

I turned to the Command Post's senior agents; they represented the FBI, Homeland Security, and the Secret Service. "Have we seen any evidence of Julio coming here? Chase thinks this is all a diversion, and they are going after his family."

"Not a thing," the FBI SAIC said. "No ground or air traffic at all."

"If he wanted a diversion, it worked. We have everything focused on Washington DC and the surrounding area. The real question is, what is the diversion for?" The Secret Service Senior Agent opened up his cellphone and made a call. "Is Valkyrie secure? We're starting to think this is all a diversion." He listened for a second, then hung up. "President Kettering is in the Situation Room with the Acting President. She's safe."

"We have to start considering that Julio never intended to deliver Andrew to us." I explained quickly how the Sons handled those who crossed them.

I sent a text message to our family group, warning them that Julio could be anywhere since he wasn't here. The Donner and Cascade Packs were too far to drive to in this amount of time, but if Julio got access to a plane? Anything was possible then. All of Colletta's children took this threat seriously, and five minutes later, I had confirmation their Packs were locked down, and they showed no active threats.

It was now ten minutes after eight. "How long are we going to keep them out there? If Chase's Pack is in danger, he's not going to stay around."

"It's only ten minutes," the FBI senior agent told me. "What if Julio is running late? We can't leave until we know for sure if he's coming or not."

"Dammit." I linked with Chase to let him know, and he reluctantly agreed. He'd calmed down a little since talking to Vic at Arrowhead, knowing his family was in the safe room, and the Pack was not under attack. He didn't want to wait forever, though. "Chase, do you want to leave Maria and Maritza with me here? I can make sure they are protected."

"No. Maria says her home is at Arrowhead now, and she wants to go home. Hell, she never wanted to be here. She's here because she doesn't want the First Husband to die."

I called his pilots and told them to be ready to return to Two Harbors as soon as Chase was released.

"Oh, my GOD," one of the agents said as she looked at the television. Live from outside the Arrowhead Pack, the cameras showed Andrew Kettering sitting on the back bumper of a news van! I linked the news to Chase as I stared at the screen. The rest of the command post was in an uproar as they realized nothing was happening here.

I listened over the link as Chase got updates from back home. I wasn't shocked when we heard the blood on Andrew's shoulder was a jaguar bite. It fit the pattern; he would die in agony, and the President would watch it helplessly. Chase got in an FBI vehicle with the girls, heading back to his plane. Nothing was keeping him here now that Andrew was free.

Vic was sending people out to bring Andrew to our clinic, and Oxbow was bringing Doctor Olson over immediately. "Chase, a whole bunch of people are going to want in there to be with Andrew, including President Kettering. It's the perfect chance for Julio to sneak in or take advantage."

"I know. Vic is going to make sure we get a good sniff of anyone coming in. Julio can't hide his scent."

"I'll stay here and coordinate the response. It would help if you brought a few Secret Service agents on the plane with you. The FBI will protect him until they arrive."

It was a tough ask; it meant leaving warriors from the Oxbow Lakes and Arrowhead Packs behind when his family is under threat. "I'll take three with me. Tell these guys to unload the cash and send three of my people with whoever else they want to send on the Air Force jet. I'm getting the hell home."

"I'll pass that on." I pulled the Secret Service supervisory agent aside. "Chase's plane is leaving in less than five minutes. He will take three agents, or you can wait until the Air Force gets the money off and gets their plane in the air."

"The President wants her husband airlifted to Bethesda," he told me.

"Not a good idea. No human doctor knows what is going on with that bite. The world experts are at Arrowhead, and that's his best chance of survival. I know Colletta is at the White House; she can explain it to them."

He quickly finished his call to the White House agents, then hung up. "I'll take your plane," he said. He ran out of the command post, waving two agents to him as they ran for Chase's aircraft. A new Secret Service agent entered the command post and took over. The FBI escorted the armored car as the pilots pulled the money bags out and left them on the tarmac. Secret Service agents and three Oxbow Lake warriors headed that way as Chase's plane taxied to the runway.

The Air Force passenger jet took off five minutes later. I remained at the Command Post for another two hours, working with Pack Alphas to arrange the return of their warriors and trackers. The Duluth FBI branch office sent four agents to Arrowhead, and dozens more were flying in from Minneapolis and Chicago.

I spent time on the phone with Arrowhead, explaining the takeover that was about to happen. "Vic, Air Force One is taking off for Duluth right now with President Kettering aboard. The Secret Service is freaking out because they have no advance team, and Chase refused to turn over control of Pack lands to them."

"I bet that went over well," he replied.

"I worked out some compromises," I said. "We won't turn over our security center, but we will allow the Secret Service and FBI to work with us in the room so they can monitor the cameras with us. We won't evacuate our people, but they can cordon off the area around the Clinic. We will let their agents use our fighting positions, but our people will remain armed beside them. They can handle the roads and guard the borders on the public side, using National Guard troops if necessary, and they can establish a no-fly zone overhead. Finally, we will restrict our people to their homes or the Pack House unless escorted by the FBI or Secret Service."

Vic paused a moment as he waited for Rori to respond. "Alpha says she can live with that, Frank. We'll be as accommodating as we can while keeping our people safe. It won't last more than a day or two, and if we don't, the Secret Service will insist on moving him. Right now, I've got an FBI agent in the control center with me. The other two are at the Clinic, along with five members of the Sheriff's Department and one DEA agent. Andrew is giving his statement now."

"Let them focus on the Pack Clinic while you keep our people safe. It's going to be a zoo, but Chase will be there in a couple hours."

"That will help."

"How is Andrew doing?"

Vic paused. "Doc is here now suturing the wounds. He was dehydrated and hungry, but he already has a fever. Doc figures the bite happened about eight hours ago. Andrew confirmed he got bit before getting his last tranquilizer shot, and Doc said each injection would last six to eight hours. He thinks he was awake the last two hours of the trip but can's say for sure."

Shit. With a werewolf bite, most humans lasted about twenty-four hours. We'd lost a third of that already. "Can we use Maria's blood?" I'd made the turn after my throat was slit, and it was multiple bags of werewolf blood and the love of my Colletta that pulled me through the change.

"Andrew's blood type is A-positive, but Maria's is B-positive. They aren't compatible, so Doc won't even try. Even if they were compatible, one pint of Maria's blood wouldn't be enough."

"And werepanthers don't have mates."

"Exactly," Vic said with a sigh. "Maybe you could ask all the Alphas if they know anything that may help?"

"I'll put out the request myself." What a mess. "How is the press coverage?"

"The news stations are pissed off," Vic said with a laugh. "I let a crew film until Andrew entered the clinic, and then I kicked them off our land again without making a statement. Chase doesn't give me hazard pay, so I'm not dealing with them. There are five news vans and two helicopters out there now."

"Help is on the way. Call me if anything changes."

"Yes, sir."

I hung up and immediately made a video call to Colletta, telling her about what Doc had said. "Are we sure werejaguars don't have mates?"

"That is my understanding, as well as what Maria believes." I could see her wiping away a tear. "I don't have any answers. Wolf territories and jaguar territories don't overlap, and their bites don't affect us."

I froze as I ran the idea through my head. Could it be that simple? "If we transfused him with multiple units of werewolf blood, would that be enough to fight off the effects of the jaguar bite?"

"I don't know if it would work so long after being bitten," she replied. "Andrew might still try to change into a jaguar. If he doesn't, he'll turn into a werewolf, and he won't survive THAT without a mate."

Thirty minutes later, I finished a conference call with Colletta, President Kettering, the White House Physician, Chase, Doc Olson, and Doc Myers from the Cascade Pack. No one had a better idea. We were desperate; I'd piss on a spark plug right now if I thought it would do any good.

Colletta put out a call to every Pack Alpha for assistance. She needed them to send all unmated females to Arrowhead to see if they were mates with Andrew Kettering, and she needed them quickly.

Ch. 42

President Laura Kettering's POV

Air Force One

I let out a sigh of relief when I saw Andrew was free. I'd never liked the idea of paying a ransom, but I didn't want my husband dying at the hands of a monster. We may not love each other as we did decades ago, but I couldn't bear to see him suffer.

It hit me like a truck when I found out Julio had bitten him and what it meant. Colletta was brutally honest with me as we sat in my conference room together; the bite was fatal, and it wouldn't be an easy death. Fever, delirium, pain beyond measure, then the heart finally giving out from the strain. I demanded they do something, ANYTHING, to save him. In the conference call that had just ended, they had an idea. It was the Powerball lottery of long shots, but as Lloyd Christmas once said in Dumb and Dumber, "So you're telling me there's a chance."

My physician at Bethesda was smart enough to realize he didn't know a thing about the bite or how to treat it, so he deferred to the Pack Doctors. Their plan was bold and unlikely to succeed. Chase explained that the doctors would replace most of Andrew's blood with werewolf blood to fight the panther bite. Once the change began, they would find a mate to guide him to his wolf. Had it been tried before? Not this way. Three times the Pack Doctors had seen humans through a successful change, but in two of those, the human already met their wolf mate.

If it worked, Andrew would become a werewolf before I did, and he would be the one divorcing ME to be with his mate. Finding his mate was not a sure thing, as Colletta warned. There were fewer than a hundred unmated females of age in the werewolf world, and some of them would never arrive in time. While we waited, Andrew suffered. "How can I get through this?"

Colletta put her hand on mine. "We are doing everything we can, Madam President. I've asked every Pack to send their females to the Two Harbors or Minneapolis-St. Paul, since the Secret Service will shut down Duluth International Airport to air traffic. Chase will have all the eligible females from Oxbow Lake and Arrowhead Packs checked in the next hour. The others will start arriving shortly after that."

Valerie Grunwald looked up from her phone, where she had been texting the members of the Secret Service ad-hoc advance team that flew out with Chase or the Air Force plane. "It's standard procedure to shut down the airport while Air Force One is there. We are breaking enough protocols already just by making this trip. If not for the Acting President, it wouldn't happen." She had protested strongly to Cartwright, but he'd given a direct order. He did allow us to use Air Force One, and he called up the National Guard in Duluth and the 148^th Fighter Wing of the Air Force Reserve to assist. "How are we going to run security checks on a hundred women, some foreigners, all trying to get into the room with the President?"

"You won't need to," Colletta replied. "Andrew took a shower shortly after arriving at the Clinic. Our nurse bagged his clothing. Chase is going to send articles to each of the airports and the two Packs in plastic bags. If his mate is out there, she will recognize his scent from the clothing."

Good. The last thing I needed to see was a parade of underwear models coming in to smell my husband. It just wasn't fair; if you got to live that long, couldn't you be plain-looking? "That sounds like a good solution, but what about the people coming all this way? Are they going to sniff and get back on a plane?"

Colletta laughed. "Not quite. The ones who fly into Two Harbors will stay with Oxbow Lake. The ones landing in Minneapolis? We'll give them spending money, and a hotel room near the Mall of America. Once the excitement is over, Chase will invite them to visit the two Packs if they wish."

"I've heard about his pool, so I expect they will want to come," I replied. I'd seen the reports from the FBI agents and couldn't imagine visiting there. I knew the werewolves were casual about nudity, but the pool was practically a nudist resort. Maybe getting a wolf would make it easier for me to handle things? "What are the chances of any of them being his mate?"

Colletta looked uncomfortable as she answered. "We have no idea. Our people believe that the Moon Goddess grants each werewolf one mate destined to be theirs. Some people wait over a century to find theirs, while others never find the one. Some people like me even get another mate after their first one dies. How and why matings happen is not for us to know. We pray the Goddess will bring us together quickly, but everything is in her time. Until now, the idea of a human mate was thought impossible. After all, humans don't have a wolf and couldn't get one. We know better now."

"You said there are fewer than a hundred unmated females in the world."

"Yes, and that is down quite a bit. Recent events have brought together the unmated in ways we'd never done before, and many found their destined ones. Even if you assume the remaining one hundred are all waiting to meet human mates, there are a hundred million males of age in this country and billions worldwide. The Moon Goddess will have to make this happen, and I have no idea if that is her plan."

"Was there any other option that Chase didn't mention?"

"Frank only thought of one, but it's not going to happen."

I raised an eyebrow. "Why didn't Frank mention it?"

"Because even though Julio has O-positive blood and his jaguar blood would give a better chance of making the change, we don't have him in custody. Even if you did, you'd have to drain him of four or five pints to get enough. You can't kill Julio to save your husband, Madam President."

I tapped my fingers on the table. Julio was the key to this; we wouldn't be safe until he was dead. Frank had made it clear that Andrew was just the latest act in a revenge play that would end with me. "Maybe not yet, but I can do something else."

"What? Every law enforcement agent in the country is looking for Julio."

"Time to up the ante." I looked over to Valerie. "Have your agents escort the reporters and one film crew here for a statement." Valerie turned away and gave the command. "If you don't mind, Colletta, I'd like to have you here for this in case there are questions I cannot answer."

"Of course, Madam President," she replied.

Ten minutes later, the camera was rolling. "Earlier today, you saw as I had a ten-million-dollar cash ransom delivered to the White House. The money didn't bring my husband back because Julio Salazar decided to kill him instead. Julio bit Andrew Kettering, which we understand is fatal to humans in about twenty-four hours. I am on my way to the Arrowhead Pack, where doctors at his clinic are working hard to give him even a slight chance at survival."

I paused and looked in the camera. "That money can now be yours. I am offering that ten million in cash for information leading to the arrest of Julio Salazar. You do not need to catch him, and I don't want you to risk it; dial 911 or contact the FBI's tip line and let the professionals handle it. Julio is armed and dangerous, and we need him in custody as soon as possible. Julio's last known location was west of Two Harbors in northern Minnesota. I'll now take questions."

"Madam President, isn't there a better facility for your husband than a Pack Clinic?"

"No. No other doctors in the country have the experience in treating bites like the doctors at Arrowhead, and moving Andrew elsewhere would not be helpful. The best chance to save his life is there."

"Madam President, do you blame the Weres in this country for what is happening to your husband?"

"Of course not," I said. "Chairman Grimes and her people have been staunch allies in the fight against criminal elements such as the Sons of Tezcatlipoca. I count her and Alpha Chase as personal friends. I don't blame him for the actions of one escaped felon, and neither should any of you."

The press conference went on for fifteen more minutes before I called it. We were crossing over northern Wisconsin and would be landing in ten minutes.

The fasten seatbelts sign came on, and we buckled into our seats for the landing. I watched the lights below as we descended towards Duluth International Airport, an F-16 fighter jet escorting us off each wing. The pilot lowered the landing gear and flaps, and we entered our final approach to the airport just north of the city at the southern tip of Lake Superior.

We were only a few hundred feet off the ground when the plane turned violently to the right. The engines screamed as the pilots took them to maximum thrust. I heard one explosion, then a second and bigger one as the plane shuddered and turned the back to the left. The lights went off, and I said a prayer as I watched the ground rising to meet us.

Ch. 43

Air Force Colonel Randall McNally's POV

Cockpit of Air Force One

"Air Force One, wind 300 at 14 knots, clear to land runway 28."

The great thing about flying this particular 747 was never waiting for clearance. "Winds 300 at 14 knots, cleared to runway 28, Air Force One." My copilot, Colonel Amy Atlas, had us right on the ILS glide path for approach and had control of the aircraft while I handled the radio and supervised the crew.

"Landing checklist," Lt. Colonel Alan A. Anderson began as he read from the book. "Landing Gear- check down."

"Gear down and locked," I replied.

"Autopilot off."

I checked the control. "Autopilot is off."

"Autothrottle OFF and SPD deactivated."

"Autothrottle is OFF, SPD deactivated."

"Landing speed, 160 knots."

"Reducing throttles," I said. When speed bled down from 165, I reported, "Landing speed at 160 knots."

We went feet dry just north of Duluth and continued heading west to the airport. "Five hundred feet," I called out.