Page 87 of A Wolf After My Own Heart
“It’s embarrassing,” Oz admitted. “Ten years ago, there was an attempted takeover. A bunch of SAS assholes and their allies staged a takeover attempt in Shakopee, which was gonna be the starting off point for a worldwide coup. They disguised it as a protest against climate change.”
“Are you talking about the Kiyuska thing?”
“Unfortunately,” Garsea replied sourly.
“But that reallywasabout climate change. It made national news. It’s why they picked Shakopee, the town was built near the Mdewakanton Sioux burial mounds. I read about it when I was researching whether or not to move here.”
“That’s not the only reason the SAS picked Shakopee.”
“Well, sure. They also wanted to push a specific narrative: ‘We nearly wiped out this entire tribe, and P.S. we’re also destroying the planet, so pay attention and fix everything right n—’”
She cut herself off. Because there was something odd about that protest. It didn’t make national news solely because of the violence, or the unprecedented number of fatal casualties. There was something about the police response. They’d been essentially ineffective, because…
Her brain found the fact, grabbed it. “Their tear gas didn’t work. None of their crowd control stuff had much of an effect.”
“The Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux are part of a sub-tribe called Kiyuska. And Kiyuska means ‘rule breaker,’” Oz said. “Want to guess how they came by it? Or why the settlers coming west wanted to kill them all so badly?”
“It wasn’t just Native Americans vs. encroaching Europeans, which was horrifying enough,” Lila said slowly. “It was also about Shifters.” Three hundred years ago, natives who could change into wolves and bears and possums would have been interpreted by Europeans as the basest of sorcerers practicing all manner of witchcraft. An evil not to be borne, monsters who had to be wiped out to the last man, woman, and child.
“Indigenous Shifters,” Garsea clarified. “Nearly all of whom were wiped out. And so Shakopee was to be a staging area for the ultimate Shifter takeover. It didn’t work,” she added, anticipating the question, “because sanity prevailed.”
“After a bunch of them died,” Oz pointed out. “It took a while for sanity to get the upper hand.”
“Enough of us—well, not ‘us,’ we were all teenagers at the time, and kids like Sally hadn’t been whelped yet—but enough Shifters found out and put a stop to it.”
“Why?”
Garsea stared at her. “I’m sorry, Lila, did you just ask me why Shifters didn’t let reactionary racists with delusions of superiority attempt the bloodiest of coups, which ultimately would have resulted in a six-figure body countat best?”
“But you guysaresuperior. And weareruining the planet.”
“But that isn’t the way, Lila.” Garsea sounded equal parts exasperated and sad. “Obviously that’s not the way. Even if they had only killed half the Stables in the world, it’s still billions dead. So we put a stop to it before the movement could catch fire and spread all over the world. It wouldn’t have been a coup. With the population so reduced, it would have been Armageddon.”
“Huh. Well, on behalf of my species, thanks.”
“On behalf of mine, you’re welcome.”
“And I’ve got a bunch of questions about Shakopee for later.” So much to research; the mere thought made her giddy. Were there Shifter libraries? Shifter databases? There had to be. “Thanks for indulging my curiosity. But getting back to the point, Shakopee was the jumping off point, and if it had gone as planned, there were SAS sleeper cells all over the world ready to do the same thing, so long Stables, all hail furry Shifters? Right?”
Oz nodded. “Nutshell.”
“Nobody would ever ‘hail furry Shifters,’ but I see your point.”
“But that’s kind of what you’re dealing with right now, don’t you think? You got the Sindicate clerks, but not the boss. Or bosses.”
“Precisely our fear,” Garsea replied. “All we did was shut down the cell in Minneapolis. That was all wecoulddo. But the Sindicate could be anywhere. Everywhere. That isn’t a misspelling, by the way—it’s how Caro refers to them.”
Jesus.Lila had, for a minute, forgotten about Caro’s involvement.House-training? Breaking kids to be pets? How long did they have her? How did she get away? No wonder she never talks and loves tool sheds and constantly throws silent snark!
She stomped on the questions before they could escape her big mouth. That was Caro’s business, just like the destruction of Lila’s first home was hers.
“It’s only been six months,” Oz said, picking up the narrative. “Maybe their remaining membership decided they’ve laid low long enough. Maybe they need more product. There’s also a good possibility they’re hard up for money. We were able to freeze millions in Lund’s funds.”
“So the Sindicate came out of hiding and targeted Sally? Because she checks a lot of their boxes—rare, vulnerable, almost an orphan?”
“It’s one theory,” Garsea admitted.
“But think about all the things that must’ve happened for that to be true. For starters, Sally’s only lived in Minnesota…what? Couple of weeks?” When Garsea and Oz nodded, Lila continued. “So they would havejustspotted her. And they were going to grab her…how? By sabotaging Berne’s plane five hundred miles from here, when the Smalls family didn’t even know they were going to need it until a day or two before the crash?
