I huffed out a surprised breath. “Um… well… okay, Don. I’ll do that. I seriously will if it comes to that.”
Donatello sounded pleased. “Fantastic. I hope I don’t have to take that call, but if I do? I will be there. Have no doubts.”
I looked at Maddy as I ended the call. Wonder, confusion, and surprise must have been all over our faces. I laughed. “Well, that came out of nowhere.”
Maddy grinned back. “At least we have a fallback plan now. Maybe someone is actually watching out for us?”
“Maybe,” I said with another shake of my head. “That was kinda out of nowhere, right?”
She nodded. “Yeah. It was pretty weird.”
Sighing, I stood and walked toward the door. “Come on. We need to check in with everyone. I want to go look at what kind of supplies Luis was able to pack away while we were gone.
It seemedDonatello hadn’t been blowing smoke up our asses. He must have had some really good, really high-level contacts. The forty-eight-hour deadline came and went with a notification from the government that since shifters were turning themselves in at such a high rate, the deadline would be extended until most had come in voluntarily. Once this happened, the interviews with Viola became a little more forced. You could tell she was irritated that the final crackdown had been delayed, but she was doing her best to act the part of the worried philanthropist.
The news still had stories almost every day about feral shifter attacks throughout the world. Historians were brought in to discuss shifter history and if there were any reports of similar occurrences in the past. For the time being, the state of emergency hadn’t been declared. We were still able to moveabout freely as shifters, though we did get some dirty looks when we ventured into town for gas and supplies.
On the fifth day after we returned home, I sat in the living room with Maddy, her parents, and Abi. One of the news programs had an interview with a shifter expert. We tuned in because we recognized her as one of the only people who consistently defended us.
The reporter brought the expert on stage with a quick introduction. “Tonight, we welcome world-renowned shifter historian and cultural expert Doctor Bianca Jamison. Doctor Jamison, thank you for joining us. Can you give us your take on this crisis, and where you think it originated or if there are any parallels throughout history?”
Doctor Jamison looked to be in her early forties with very short blonde hair and glasses. She looked exhausted. It didn’t surprise me. This was the third or fourth interview I’d seen her give today alone. She was on an almost nonstop media tour, trying to give the public our side of the story.
Jamison nodded and adjusted her glasses. “Thanks, Charles, it’s great to be back. I do want to say that the shifter population has been living side by side with us for centuries. The earliest record of them is in ancient Egypt. There are some who believe that the animal-faced gods of the Egyptians were actually the representations of the earliest shifter populations.
“What we do know from genetic tests is that at some point, thousands of years ago, a genetic mutation occurred that allows them to shift their bodies into those of animals.”
“Magic?” the host asked.
Jamison winced. “As a scientist, I deplore that word. The actual process and how they are able to pass on the gift to their offspring is still a mystery to us. There is also some confusion as to why some align with certain animals. The presence of dragon shifters is…” She sighed. “…very hard to explain as that animalis not recorded anywhere in the fossil record. We’re getting past the point here, Charles. We’re here to discuss this current crisis and how it resonates with anything that has happened throughout history.”
“Correct. Are there any parallels? Folk stories? Ancient writings or carvings? Any hint that this same thing has happened in the past?”
Jamison shook her head once. “Not one. There has never been a written instance of a shifter suddenly, and without explanation, going feral. There is no evidence of this. Becoming feral is incredibly rare, Charles. I don’t think your audience understands how rare it is. Television and movies use the idea of a feral shifter as a good source of drama or action. That is simply not true. Of the entire shifter population, only point-five percent begin the process of becoming feral each year. Most of this is due to being ostracized from their packs, the loss of family structure, mental health, or substance abuse issues. Of that point-five percent? Only one percent actually do go feral. We’re talking about point-zero-zero-zero-zero-five percent each year. That’s a little less than a thousand people each year—in the entire world. And those poor people go feral slowly over the course of weeks or months. Most are able to get the help they need before becoming some raging animal, as we’ve seen.”
“I like this lady,” Maddy’s dad said, pointing at the screen.
“Doctor Jamison,” the host continued. “What is your theory as to what has caused this strange spike in behavior in the shifter population?”
Jamison took her glasses off and rubbed the bridge of her nose. She put them back on and said, “Look, Charles, I’ve been talking to several of my peers in other fields and… well, none of us have ever seen or heard of a disease like this. Bacteria, virus, fungus, prion? Nothing. In fact, I have a close friend who is in the infectious disease field, and he can’t even get his hands onthe research of The Monroe Group or CDC. This is highly, and I do stress,highlyirregular. Typically, with something like this that is considered a crisis, every available lab is asked to help research and find a cure or treatment. Similar to what happened with the COVID-19 pandemic. This? It’s almost like it’s being kept under lock and key. Or…” She trailed off, looking dejected.
The news anchor frowned. “Doctor? Um… or what?”
She sighed. “I wonder how truthful these people are being. I have suspicions that one of the groups telling us what is going on is not being completely forthcoming. I don’t want to say more than that due to libel laws, but I think people should be questioning this more than they are. We, as a society, can’t let our deeper prejudices be brought to the forefront due to faulty science, panic, or supposition. It’s not healthy, it’s not fair to shifters, and it’s not who we are as Americans.”
The news anchor nodded once, decisively. “Fantastic closing words, Doctor Jamison. We look forward to having you as our guest again soon. We have to take a break, but we’ll be back again after these words from our sponsors.”
“She was awesome,” Abi murmured from the far side of the couch.
“She was,” I said, wondering if Viola or one of her people had been watching.
The next morning, I got my answer. A news report flashed across the screen, announcing that famous shifter expert Doctor Bianca Jamison had been killed overnight. The report said it was a home invasion gone wrong. Of course, that was bullshit. Viola had orchestrated her death. She couldn’t allow the wrong narrative to take over. She had to keep things on track. Any voice of dissent had to be silenced.
I showed Maddy the story over breakfast. She read it three times before slamming the laptop closed in disgust. “This is such bullshit,” Her voice was filled with venom and barely-containedrage. She looked at me with dark, cold eyes. “You realize the only way this ends is with Viola dead, right?”
Shrugging, I took my plate to the sink. When I turned back, she still looked ready to kill. I held up a finger. “There’s one other way.”
“What?”
