Page 81 of Red Boar's Baby

He had no idea at first glance what he was seeing. His first thought was that it was an eagle fighting with some kind of furry animal. Then he began to parse out the details: there were wings, and there was an animal, and the animal was a small bear, no, a large wolverine, and the wings were mantled over its back. The wings were attached.

The wolverine was wearing a tracking band on its ankle, such as the SCB put on people it wanted to keep tabs on.

It was Farley.

Costa cursed loudly, which caused two of the aunts to shush him. Farley jumped and shifted back to a naked human, still wearing a tracking band on his bare ankle—it was designed to expand and contract through a person’s shifts. He sat down heavily in the dust and hastily tried to cover himself. Delgado stepped forward and wordlessly handed him a bundle of clothing.

“Thanks for the demonstration, buddy,” she said.

“What thehellwas that?” Costa snapped.

“Language!” said Aunt Brill.

“Nice way to talk about a person who’s right in front of you,” Farley retorted, trying to put on his pants without exposing himself to the assembled female relatives.

“It happened for the first time at the SCB,” Delgado explained. “Can we go inside and have some coffee or something? It’s been a long day.”

Diana moved close to Costa, her hand brushing his. He looked at her swiftly, looking for panic, but instead she merely looked fascinated. Leaning close to Costa, she whispered, “I already have wings. Do I get a second set of wings?”

“Do youwanta second set of wings?”

“Not really.” But she slid her fingers into his, and they went into the ranch house hand in hand. Costa noticed Delgado watching this and attempted to appear smooth, which failed when he almost ran into the doorframe.

The ranch house was filled with cooking smells, and Vic was with Molly on the sofa, playing a game on a tablet while keeping an eye on Emmeline in a playpen. Costa had completely forgotten that they had guests.

“Nicole still here?” he asked, bending over to fondle Emmeline’s hair over the top of the playpen. The child gave a happy squeal, as if she recognized him. She was lying on her back and playing with a mobile hooked to the playpen’s edge.

“Nicole went back to Seattle while you were off grid,” Vic said. “I’ll give you the rundown on my investigation in a little while. I understand you have business.”

Delgado took them off to a quiet corner, Farley included.

“Okay, so what happened?” Diana demanded. “Why does he have wings? Do I get wings? More wings, I mean.”

“We didn’t know until he shifted,” Delgado said. “I mean, he didn’t know either. Actually, why don’t you tell them.”

She turned to Farley, who was still buttoning his shirt.

“Yeah, it was a complete shock,” Farley said. “So I was in and out of you guys’ lab at the SCB, they were trying to figure out what that stuff they injected me with was doing, and I just felt weird, you know? Like I had the flu or something.”

He looked at Diana, who nodded. “It’s a little better now,” she said. “I still feel kind of achy, tired and strange.”

“Yeah, same. Anyway, nothing seemed to be different, so they had me shift, and—wings. I guess.”

“Do they work?” Costa asked.

Farley and Delgado both stared at him. “I didn’t think to try,” Farley said. “Can I try?”

“Not yet,” Costa said hastily, thinking about the possibility of their main witness flying off into the desert. “So the wings were just there? Did they grow when you shifted, fledge out and so on? Or just appear fully formed, like they’d always been there?”

“Yeah, just there. Like they’d always been there. And—I can’t really explain it, but you know what it’s like when you’re shifted, right? How the animal side of you just accepts things? And my wolverine half was okay with it but not okay with it at the same time. It was just this crazy weird feeling. A little like what I guess animals must feel when they’re radio-collared.” He gestured to the anklet. “Kind of like the way my animal side feels about this. It’s there and it’s not hurting me and I’m not gonna try to chew it off, but it’s not supposed to be there.”

“But you had no idea about the wings until you shifted?”

Farley shook his head. “Not at all.”

Costa looked at Diana. “I think you’d better shift.”

“I was just thinking the same thing.”

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