Bitesize 3.7

Bitesize 3.7

Ed slumped into his seat in the briefing room opposite Alf and next to Katia. He'd finished telling Alf all about what he'd seen at Acorn House and now he was feeling tired.
"So what exactly do you plan on doing?" asked Alf.
Ed sighed deeply.
"We can't give him Odolf. I spoke to him while you were briefing people to look for Crowley's message. He's scared. He doesn't want Crowley to wake up the Onigawa inside him. We'll have to lie and hope he'll fall for it. When Crowley gets in touch, offer him Raddick for Valentina and my Dad. Tell him Odolf hung himself or something. With no mirrors in the room he has no way of knowing whether its true or not."
"So we make the swap, Raddick for your Dad. And in the meantime?"
"In the meantime Katia and I need to take the wolf I caught and a chopper. We need some way of controlling him..."
"We have one." said Katia, "A collar with enough tranq to take him down. we can trigger it remotely from the chopper when we need to."
"Ok." said Ed, "Then we turn him loose where we found him. Let him track T-alpha and we'll follow in the chopper. I'll need a rifle with a sniper scope that can fire tranquilisers and some nightvision thermal goggles."
"And what if you don't find T-alpha?"
Ed shrugged.
"Then we have very little time left to come up with an alternative. Maybe Dad can shed some light on it when he gets back. Try interrogating hum under hypnosis if he's ok with it. Hopefully he can remember details that he wouldn't otherwise."
The phone on the desk rang at that point and Alf answered it. It was a brief exchange and then he hung up.
"Crowley's on a video link. I'm gonna go arrange the trade."
"Then we better get going." said Ed and he and Katia got up.
"Good luck." said Alf as they left.


While the chopper got prepared and equipment was fetched Katia took Ed down to meet the werewolf he'd captured. In another holding cell similar to Raddick's sat a middle-aged man. He looked meek and complacent, short dark hair, thick lensed glasses.
"His name's Dennis." said Katia as they observed him through a two way mirror. "Astronomy enthusiast. He was out videoing some meteor shower when T-alpha attacked him."
"How much control does he have?"
"Very little. He can force his transformation into the wolf but can't turn back voluntarily. He's been trying. In fact he's eager to help us. He's a bit of a sci-fi nerd. This whole thing, he loves it. Sure he's scared but he thinks this is his Spiderman, you know?"
"Mild mannered astronomer by day..." joked Ed.
"Something like that. He's already been briefed. We'll drop him off at the field with the collar on and once we're back up in the air he'll turn."
"Let's do it."


As the chopper made its way to where Ed had first caught Dennis he finally had the chance to be alone with his thoughts. The rapidity of the events had almost overwhelmed him. Just a few hours ago he'd been sat staring at a mirror in a quaint English mansion looking for a missing maid. Now he was cradling a sniper rifle in his arms and a tablet of Diazepam in his hand. There was a lot riding on this moment. The Diazepam would keep his aim steady despite his tiredness he hoped which meant that the only element that could go wrong was if T-alpha didn't show. The rifle itself had darts holding a mixture of silver and Etorphine, more than enough to take down T-alpha in two shots. Ed wondered what Crowley was up to. Clearly he wanted Raddick for something and Odolf too. He couldn't help but wonder about that. What power did Odolf possess that Crowley wanted so badly and for what purpose?
His headset radio crackled into life and the pilot's voice interrupted his thoughts.
"Landing in a couple of minutes."
Ed looked over to Katia, gave her a nod, then slid his goggles over his eyes and turned on the thermal imaging.