Trouble in a Fur Coat (The Fur Coat Society Book 1) (14 page)

When Silver came to, she was in a dark room that looked like some sort of prison cell. It was cold, and she was handcuffed to two metal rings on the wall. She shivered, and tried not to panic when she realized that she had no idea where she was or how she had ended up here. In the corner of the small room, her bicycle was leaning against the wall.

As her eyes adjusted to the dim lighting, she looked around and tried to find some sort of clue as to where she was. Nothing in the room looked familiar to her. The walls were plain concrete, as was the door. There were no windows, although a small amount of light came in from the small gap around the side of the door.

Silver squinted, trying to see if anything as visible in that gap, but the gap was too small and she was too far away. The handcuffs forced her to sit within a few feet of the wall. Silver took deep breaths and tried not to panic. She had to think clearly and keep her wits about her.

She went over the events of the day, trying to remember anything unusual that might have happened. Nothing had seemed strange until Tim showed up. He had given her a bad feeling from the first moment he walked up to her that afternoon. He must have knocked her out with some sort of chemical on the little white cloth he held up to her face. But why? Was he working for Mr. Astor? And why was she here in this little cell?

She had no idea how long she had been knocked out for, or what time it was. The light coming through the door was indoor, artificial lighting. Silver had no way of knowing whether it was still daytime or not. She felt a sudden fear gripping her heart as she realized that it might take quite a while for someone to miss her and realize that something had happened to her. Jack worked all night tonight, and he likely wouldn’t begin to worry about Silver not answering texts until at least late afternoon the next day, whenever he woke up from catching up on the sleep he’d missed for his overnight shift. The other Fur Coats wouldn’t think anything of not hearing from Silver for a day or two, and probably wouldn’t really start to worry until several days had passed. By then, who knows what would have happened to her?

Silver frowned, trying to figure out why she had been kidnapped. The only people she could think of who didn’t particularly like her right now were Joe and his parents, and she was pretty sure Tim was working for them. But why would they kidnap her? They had better things to do with their time, and they wouldn’t want to mess with the legal complications that might arise from hurting her. She wasn’t that big of a deal to them, was she?

As if in answer to her question, the heavy concrete door to the small room opened. Silver momentarily squeezed her eyes shut as a flood of bright light hit her. The brightness was painful after being in such a dark place. Silver forced her eyes open, though, trying to catch a glimpse of what was behind the door before someone shut it again. To her surprise, she recognized the room as the interior of Mr. Astor’s office. Apparently, there was a hidden door and hidden room behind one of the wall panels. And when Silver finally raised her eyes to see who had come into the room, it was Mr. Astor, with Tim. Silver felt her heart dropping. Whatever this was about, it wasn’t going to be good.

“Well, well, well. If isn’t the mighty Silver Rowe,” Mr. Astor said, circling around Silver in a way that reminded Silver of a tiger circling its prey. Tim laughed, his face twisting into an evil grin and sending a fresh wave of panic through Silver’s core. She forced herself to look calm, even though all of her instincts were screaming at her to call out for help.

“Not feeling very conversational today, are we Silver?” Mr. Astor said, still pacing around her like he might pounce at any moment. “That’s okay. I’ll do the talking. Since you were so interested in butting your head into my business, I figured I’d let you have a firsthand peek at the shifter scanners. Tim?”

Tim nodded in response, and slid a large, black backpack off of his shoulders. He set it down on the floor with a loud thud, and unzipped it quickly. Then he pulled out a large, black object that almost looked like a gun from an arcade hall. It was oversized and almost cartoonish, and when Tim flipped a switch on the bottom it whirred to life with a series of beeps that sounded similar to the start of a video game. Tim handed the gun to Mr. Astor, who held it reverently between his hands and paced back and forth in front of Silver for a few more moments, making sure that she could see the large gun-like object clearly.

Silver’s curiosity burned, and she desperately wanted to know what, exactly, Mr. Astor was holding. But she didn’t want to give him the satisfaction of knowing that he had piqued her interest, so she sat very still with a scowl on her face and said nothing.

“I’m sure you’re wondering what this is, Silver,” Mr. Astor finally said, pausing to look at her. “Here, I’ll show you.”

Mr. Astor, in one lightning movement, pointed the gun straight at Silver’s head and pulled the trigger. Silver winced and ducked her head, but her reflexes hadn’t been quick enough. A bright red beam shot from the muzzle of the gun and hit Silver square in the face, blinding her momentarily.

“Warning, confirmed shifter,” the gun’s computer announced in a loud voice.

Silver felt her heart dropping all the way to her feet. Mr. Astor had the eye scanner! And it was apparently working. Despite her resolve to not react to Mr. Astor, Silver couldn’t keep herself from looking up at him in horror, her eyes wide and disbelieving. Mr. Astor and Tim both let out long, evil laughs, and Silver’s blood ran cold.

When Mr. Astor had finally settled down enough to speak, he pointed the scanner at Silver again and pulled the trigger once more. This time, Silver didn’t flinch, but Mr. Astor smirked as the computer once again announced. “Warning, confirmed shifter.”

“Since you were so curious about my war against shifters, Silver, I’m sure you won’t mind being recruited to help the cause? We need to get the public stirred up a little bit, to put more pressure on the mayor to get on board with this little war of ours. Wouldn’t you love to sacrifice yourself to the cause?”

Silver felt her heart pounding in her chest. “What are you talking about?” she finally asked. It was the first thing she’d said since Mr. Astor walked into the room, and, apparently, he was pleased with her response because he chuckled.

“What I’m talking about, Silver, is this: the mayor has a big safety summit coming up. I’ve been trying for ages to get him to let me present on the dangers of shifters, but he hasn’t been interested. Now, however, he’s lagging behind in the polls. With election season quickly approaching, he’s trying to find a way to stir up support. And there’s not much out there more sensational than the idea of shifters attacking the city of Chicago. The only problem is, a lot of people don’t even know shifters exist. That’s where you, and this scanner, come in.”

“Shifters aren’t dangerous,” Silver spat out. Despite her resolve to keep quiet, her anger was beginning to bubble over. How could this evil, awful man sit here and talk about shifters attacking the city? The real protection Chicagoans needed was against crooks and cronies like Mr. Astor.

To Silver’s surprise, Mr. Astor laughed. “Oh, I know. Shifters just want to live and let live and all that. I have to admit that it’s true. When I first discovered shifters, the idea of animals walking among us made me nervous. Yes, even me, a smart, strong, capable man, was worried. Of course, I did a little research and educated myself, and realized that shifters aren’t all that scary, after all. They’re weird, yes. But not scary.”

“Then why are you on this crazy crusade to get rid of them?” Silver asked. There was no use trying to pretend that she wasn’t interested in the issue anymore. Mr. Astor had caught her attention, and he knew it.

“Because, my dear Silver, putting fear in people’s hearts is the quickest way to control them. And I want control. I want power. So does the mayor. If I help him get more power, I’m next in line. It’s a ripple effect. Next week, I’m going to strike fear in the heart of every citizen of Chicago. I’m going to make them fear for their lives, and make them believe that getting rid of shifters is the only answer. The mayor will make them believe that reelecting him is the only way to ensure shifters are gone and Chicago is safe. And when the mayor is reelected, and owes that reelection to me, I will have the power I so desperately seek. I can handle him like a puppet. He’s close friends with the President, you know. I’m going to have influence all the way to the biggest leader of the free world, Silver. And it’s going to be fucking glorious.”

“You’re out of your mind,” Silver said.

“Call me crazy if you want, my dear. All the great leaders were called crazy at some point. It doesn’t matter what you think of me. What matters is that I can use you to convince everyone that shifters are real. It doesn’t matter that you aren’t actually a shifter. I can pretend you are, and the eye scanner will help me do that. You’re a famous ballerina here in the city, and your recent breakup with my son made you even more high profile. You’re exactly the person I need to show everyone that shifters have infiltrated our society.”

Silver didn’t say anything. She furrowed her brow in confusion as she processed what Mr. Astor had just said. “What do you mean it doesn’t matter that I’m not actually a shifter?” she asked, her tone cautious.

Mr. Astor laughed. “It doesn’t matter that you’re a mere human weakling, Silver. The scanner isn’t working properly, of course, but no one else needs to know that. Here, watch this.”

Mr. Astor raised the scanner and pointed it in Tim’s direction. The red light flashed across Tim’s face, and the computer said, “Full human, no danger present.”

Then Mr. Astor handed the scanner to Tim, who scanned Mr. Astor’s eyes. Once again, the computer said, “Full human, no danger present.”

Silver was still confused. The scanner seemed to be working fine to her. It had properly identified her as a shifter, and the two men in the room as humans. But then Mr. Astor opened the door to the room a crack. “Alice, get in here,” he said.

A few moments later, a young woman in a white lab coat stepped into the room. Silver’s bear nose quickly identified the woman as fully human. But when Mr. Astor raised the scanner and pointed it in Alice’s direction, the flashing red beam was followed by the computer’s announcing “Warning, confirmed shifter.”

“Thank you, Alice. That’s all,” Mr. Astor said. Alice, who didn’t seem at all fazed by the fact that the scanner had just incorrectly identified her as a shifter, nodded and left the room.

“She’s not a shifter,” Silver said, crossing her arms. Mr. Astor and Tim both laughed.

“Of course not, and neither are you,” Mr. Astor said. “There’s no way we’re going to have the scanners properly working in time for the safety summit, so we just rigged them to identify females as shifters and males as full humans. You’re going to be the only female on stage at the safety summit, so it works out perfectly. Everyone will think that the scanners work, and that you’re a shifter. Fear will fill the hearts of the people, we’ll buy a little time to get the scanners working properly, and—best of all—your life and career will be ruined. No one will ever want to watch you dance again, once they know that you’re actually a big, bad shifter. I’d say it’s a win-win for everyone. Well, except for you. But you’ll be a martyr for a good cause.”

Mr. Astor and Tim laughed again, and Silver’s mind started putting pieces into place. Mr. Astor thought she was a full human. He had no idea that she was actually a shifter. And he was going to try to trick all of Chicago into thinking the shifter gun was working. Silver struggled to keep down the panic that had started to rise within her once more. If Mr. Astor went through with this, her career would indeed be ruined. But even more frightening than that was the fact that this could start a full-blown witch hunt for shifters. In that moment, Silver wished more than anything that she had insisted to the other Fur Coats that they clue their parents in to what was going on. Now, there was going to be no warning, and no chance to prepare a response. Shifters would just find themselves under immediate attack. Silver was too young to remember living through any widespread attacks on shifters, but she’d heard enough stories to know that these things escalated out of control with lightning speed. She had to find a way to warn everyone, but she had no idea how she was going to manage that while locked away in a secret room in Mr. Astor’s house.

Mr. Astor seemed pleased with her silence, and he continued chuckling as he turned back toward the door to leave. “Come on, Tim,” he said. “Silver just discovered she’s a shifter. Let’s give her some alone time to process her new identity.”

Mr. Astor and Tim left, leaving Silver alone in the dark once more. She tried to focus on coming up with a plan, but it was hard to feel like there was anything that could be done while chained up to a wall. Even shifting wouldn’t help her here. The metal of the handcuffs was too thick, and Silver wouldn’t be able to break free even using the energy and power from shifting.

After several hours of worrying and fruitlessly trying to think of a way to change her current situation, Silver finally fell asleep. It was beginning to look like her only hope would be for one of the Fur Coats to realize she was missing and find her before the press conference. But the odds of that were pretty low. It sounded like the press conference was in a few days, and Silver wasn’t sure that a day or two was long enough for someone to realize she was missing, let alone find her.

Getting out of this mess was going to take a miracle of some sort.