Ch. 6 - On the Scent

The black cat followed her from the restaurant, curious and slightly menacing. Hungry, despite the fact that his fur shone and his body looked almost plump. He didn't overtake her, or get close enough to touch her, but she could feel his yellow eyes fixing her. The hair on the back of her neck stood on end, and she could almost swear she heard his purr over the din of a city waking up. She stepped into the larger street, and crossed it just as several cars passed. She stopped at the door, risking a quick look over her shoulder. Her breath, she didn't even realize she was holding, released in an audible hiss, as her eyes met the cat's - standing very still and very intent at the mouth of the alleyway. If she should guess, she'd wager this particular feline was a sentinel or familiar. The question was who for.
Maddie punched in the code, swiftly got to the second story and tapped at the door.
"Which cave do ya think gave Plato the idea?" Tiger's gruff voice sounded through the wood.
"I'd say it flew in to him on the standstill arrow Xenon saw," she responded and the door opened.
Maddie walked in, stepped towards the window facing the street and looked out. The black cat was still in the same spot, only now he was sitting, with his head slightly cocked to one side, and his eyes lifted up. Lioness shook her head, then finally looked into the room again.
"I brought food," she offered in the direction of Osprey, who seemed preoccupied with the portal. Her emotions were thankfully slightly calmer now
"We can take it on the balcony," Tiger indicated a door. Fortunately it was not facing the street, so that will allow them to escape the presence of death without exposing them to the magical tom.
Lioness nodded and stepped through to a very small balcony, equipped with a coffee table and four wrought iron chairs. Her two colleagues followed, picking seats as far from each other as the limited space allowed. She handed them each a box of gyros and the utensils, then lowered herself into the chair closest to the table.
"What's the SITREP?" she asked towards Osprey after a few bites.
"I can get us close to where it leads," the portalist shrugged. "Beyond that, we will see when we get there. It would be good to get a read on their portalist, if we get a chance too."
Lioness raised an eyebrow.
"A read?"
"It would be useful to know what motivation he uses to open his portals, what kind of energy. It could tie to whatever type of traps and/or tricks they use."
Osprey shrugged.
"It might not matter, or it might be life or death. You just never know."
The empath nodded her understanding. Of course magic and emotions tended to be closely connected.
"We do not expect to find them beyond just that portal, do we," Tiger argued. "That would be too easy, even if they believed no one would get here for days."
Both of the women nodded and shook their heads almost in unison.
"There's probably another portal waiting on the other side," Osprey grumbled. "That's what I *meant*."
Lioness briefly considered mentioning her 'pet' encounter, but it seemed rather unimportant since they won't have to go back outside.
"Here," she handed over the phones and cards, and they all worked inputting each other's numbers into contacts. When they were all tested and confirmed as working, the girls finished their meals (Dwayne had practically inhaled his in a few bites in a classic emergency responder/military fashion.)
As they stepped back inside, there was a flash of apprehension from Osprey, which turned into outright indignation, when Tiger handed each of them some of his team's gear. It was obvious he tried to pick the least damaged and dirtied pieces, but still all of them were far from pristine.
Osprey's bristling fortunately didn't last very long, as she turned to the task at hand.
"I am assuming trying to get a read on this portal trace should be safe?" Lioness asked cautiously. "Just passive reading, no prodding or probing."
The other woman nodded, and she stepped a bit aside.
Lioness focused on the floor once again. She knelt in front of the portal, tracing her fingers on the artificial wood panels. There was a jumble of echoes, so she moved a bit further, trying specifically *not* to feel Swan's again. After a moment she found what she was looking for. Intense focus, laced with gleeful almost triumphant malice.
This is someone who enjoys causing pain... and knows he is rather good at it.
She didn't say that out loud - yet.
"This is most definitely a trap," she said instead, noting with some amusement she almost sounded like Wolf.
Osprey accepted that confirmation of her suspicion with a choppy nod, her mind only half focusing.
"We need an escape plan," she said simply. "Before we even go in."
"Hard to plan if we have no clue what for," Tiger argued.
"Then we plan for everything," the woman rebutted, as her eyes wondered around the room.
She didn't find whatever it was she was looking for, but she just shrugged the notion away.
"I'll go into the portal first. If anything happens,..."
"... we'll be stuck here! Or worse! And you'll be cut off." Tiger's normally quiet voice rose in protest.
"It's *protocol*, Tiger," she flung the word at him as a curse. It worked. Sort of, because his absolute disagreement was evident even without empathy.
"If anything happens, I'll get you out. Or keep you out. So you can try something else."
Lioness shook her head, but didn't protest.
"Once we have a better idea, on the other side of this," Osprey pointed at the portal. "I'll have the rest. But of course, it's always better to have alternatives, so..."
The two more senior agents exchanged a glance and nodded.
Plan B and Plan C coming right up.
"For now let's stop yapping and get a move on, before the year changes again," Tiger urged impatiently.
Osprey shot him a dirty look, focused intensely, and in a moment had a softly green glowing portal in front of her.
"Here goes nothing?" she probably didn't intend it to sound like a question, but it did. Lioness quickly probed the other side of the portal with her mind.
"Seems clear," she said, and Osprey stepped through.
Tiger took a step forward, but at the last moment motioned for her to precede him.
She stepped around him, then turned and stared right into his eyes.
"If we get caught," she said suddenly, voice low, expression serious. "Promise me one thing."
He took a breath to answer, but she didn't wait.
"A bullet," she said. "Right between my eyes."
Her finger touched her forehead almost involuntarily.
Tiger hesitated, his emotions flaring a million miles a minute. She gently nudged them with her determination.
"Promise me."
His look was dark, but he never broke eye contact.
"I promise," he said, and pushed her towards the portal.
She stepped through, an emotional beam at the ready.
As she took in her new surroundings (a small, rather quiet square with a quirky water fountain in the middle), she noticed Osprey looking somewhat impatiently in her direction from the mouth of one of the alleys around the square.
Tiger stepped through the portal, which flickered and dropped out of existence.
Osprey didn't wait to check if they followed her, she just set right off.
"Any idea where we are?" Tiger half-whispered as he fell into step with Lioness.
She looked up at the houses around.
"Napoli, apparently," she pointed up to a street sign.
A grim nod was everything she got in return. Osprey stopped by a large door couple houses ahead. She tried the door handle, and cursed under her breath.
"Locked." She complained.
Lioness looked around, then up. Then she knocked at the door. An elderly lady stuck her head out of a window directly above. It didn't take long for several more head to pop out of windows along the street.
"Neighbourhood watch," Lioness quipped quietly to her colleagues, as she smiled brightly up at the first one.
"Scusi signora," she started in almost fluent Italian, making up an excuse which led to the door being opened in about two minutes.
"Where to?" she asked Osprey, as the Italian grandma motioned them in for a good cup of coffee.
"It should be just in this passageway," the other woman replied with evident frustration. "But I can hardly work on it with a civvy on site!"
Maddie motioned for Risa to "fall behind", and worked on masking her disappearance in front of their host.
Last thing she could sense before another heavy door closed between them was a flash of thrill, as Osprey found what she was looking for.