Chimera and the Cat Burglar (FUC Academy #46)

Chapter 14

Chapter

Fourteen

Boo arrived back at her apartment and had just stepped inside when her phone rang. She didn’t recognize the number but answered anyway.

“So, Alyce tells me you’ve been on quite the adventure,” Zeb said, his voice as sharp as ever.

Boo’s heart squeezed from relief. “Zeb! I’m so glad you’re okay!”

“I heard you brought Alyce the statue.”

“I did…” Boo answered slowly, unsure whether the reason he was calling was to thank her for a job well done or if he had other reasons. She had so many questions to ask him but couldn’t figure out what to ask first.

“You impress me, Cadet Bombay. After our first meeting, I was certain that you had nefarious intentions, but you’ve proven me wrong. Good job.”

“Uh, thanks.” She didn’t feel she needed to assure him that his instincts had been correct. “Hey, uh, I was wondering, have you heard anything about a portal under the city of Willow Wisp?”

Zeb was silent for a moment. “Portals are a thing of fantasy, and we live in a world of science.”

“That didn’t answer my question,” Boo aptly assessed.

“Have I heard people make the claim? Sure,” he admitted. “But does such a thing exist? Of course not.”

“Right.” What had she expected a well-respected FUC agent to say? Knowing she’d already sounded foolish, she decided to go all in. “Zeb, what do you know about the missing stone? Have you ever seen it? You didn’t… uh, bury it in an empty grave or anything, did you?”

“I’ve never seen the stone, no. If I had, don’t you think I would have reunited it with the statue?”

“Right,” she said again, disappointed that her conversation with Zeb wasn’t more enlightening. Or perhaps she was simply dejected that the fantasy story her mother had concocted wasn’t true.

“In any case, good work, future Agent Bombay.”

With that, he hung up.

She thought over the conversation as she showered and changed into clean clothes. It felt good to wash away the stench of jail, but she wished she would have gotten more out of Zeb. It seemed like everything that had happened with Ginnie and her mother had made her think that there was more to Zeb’s involvement with the statue and the history of Willow Wisp than really existed.

After she made herself a quick meal and finished it, her cell buzzed again. She checked the screen, thinking maybe it was Zeb calling back, ready to amend his statements, but it wasn’t.

It was Willy.

Her heart warmed, and her belly fluttered. “Hey.”

“Where are you?” Willy asked, an alarming whoo-oo-whoo-oo-whoo coming through the receiver.

“I’m at my apartment.” Boo pressed her ear to the cell, trying to make out the background noises. “Where are you ?”

“In town.” Willy panted. “The Willow Wisp town emergency alarm is going off. I heard someone say there’s a gas leak.”

Strange. Her apartment building wasn’t far from downtown, but she didn’t hear any alarms.

Willy continued, “Only, I don’t smell natural gas. You know, that rotten egg smell. Cops are mostly congregated in and around the cemetery.”

“The cemetery? ” The portal. Yes, Zeb said it was fantasy, and her rational mind agreed, but her gut instinct told her there was something to it. “We have to go check it out.”

Then a thought occurred to her. “Willy, why are you in town? I thought we were meeting at the Academy to give Alyce the necklace to go with the statue?”

“I did go to the Academy, but then I came back.”

“Okay… why?”

“Because I stole the statue.”

“ What? ” For a moment, Boo thought maybe she was dreaming the phone conversation. “That doesn’t make any sense!”

“I know it sounds strange, but I went to Alyce’s office, and the statue called out to me.”

Boo’s heart sank. Legend of the statue claimed it was dangerous, and while she never believed it—until Zeb had been poisoned—Willy’s words shook her.

She urged, “You have to take it back to the Academy.”

Instead of listening to her, Willy stated, “Meet me at the cemetery. You’ll have to use back streets and alleys to get to the mausoleum.”

Knowing she couldn’t reason with him over the phone, she said, “I’ll be there as soon as I can.”

She ended the call and pocketed her cell.

What was going on? A gas leak in the cemetery and Willy following orders from a statue? One thing was for sure; Boo was going to do whatever it took to save her man.

She left her apartment, jumping into her car, and speeding across town. She parked a few blocks away from the cemetery to avoid the road closures around the center of town.

As Willy had described, red and blue lights strobed against the skyline, andpolice officers patrolled the blockades. Sirens sent echoes through the streets.

Talk about a shitshow.

Boo exited the car and sent a text to Willy, but he didn’t answer back.

Her chest squeezed from fear that she’d rekindled her love for Willy and that flame could be snuffed out if the statue led him into harm’s way.

Ping .

Boo glanced down, spotting the time and Willy’s text: Wait for me near the mausoleum .

He didn’t say when he’d be there, but she trusted Willy to follow through.

She flipped up her hoodie, and mindful of the cops patrolling the streets, her cat burglar skills kicked in, using the familiarity she had with the town alleyways and the underground storm drain system.

She opened a utility hole cover, shoving back the heavy metal disk before entering.

Sticky cobwebs tangled her legs, and a putrid smell of rotting leaves hit her nose.

She descended a crusty ladder, praying it wouldn’t spring from its rusty hinges.

How old was this infrastructure? Why wasn’t the town prioritizing the conditions below the city?

Ten rungs later, she landed on the bottom of an eight-foot diameter concrete culvert beneath the town. She figured she was three blocks from Main Street, and four blocks from Willow Wisp Way, the cemetery’s southwest corner cross street.

Her head swam. She flicked on her cell phone, lighting up the soupy path.

Overhead, the light from the streetlamps made its way through the drains, somewhat illuminating the sewer, and Boo pocketed her cell to save power.

The voices of law enforcement officers reached into the drainage system, echoing in the tubular space. “Keep the perimeter. There is a gas leak in the cemetery.”

She stopped, looking up to find a utility hole, knowing that if she went much farther, she’d end up at the river.

The wobbly metal ladder shook in its welds, but Boo kept her faith.

It would hold.

She would meet up with Willy.

She would save him before the statue led him to his demise.

She popped her head out of the hole and took in her surroundings. She was at street level and positioned along the interior road that ran through the cemetery.

She purred, a calming hum. “Things are going our way.”

Inside her pocket, she reached past her blade and clutched her necklace, noticing the slightest static prick in her palm.

The mausoleum was up ahead. She could make out the rosebushes flanking the stone sides and the marble cherub over the double doors. She headed toward it, skirting a giant pine, weaving her way between the monuments of the founding families, and then stopped twenty feet from the stone structure.

“Willy?” she whisper-shouted.

Her heart flooded with relief when he revealed himself.

His torso was bare, and his abs shimmered in the moonlight.

Talk about a god.

Willy held the bundled statue.

Boo sprinted toward Willy and sailed into his arms, knowing he’d catch her every time.

Static stormed between them as they sandwiched the artifact. It was powerful, but so was their love for each other. “I missed you. I’m so glad you’re okay.”

Willy kissed Boo. “For a few moments back at the Academy, I was overcome. I don’t know why, but it was like I lost control and just had to get the statue and bring it back here.”

“We should call Alyce. We need to get it back to her.” Yet, even as the words left her mouth, she knew that wasn’t going to happen.

“Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” Willy asked.

“That the statue and necklace want to be here and be reunited.” It was strange, feeling like two inanimate objects had desires, but she knew to her core that there was no other way.

Boo shoved her hand into her pocket and locked her fingers around the necklace. She didn’t want to let it go but accepted some things were bigger than her.

Willy drew Boo’s hand from her pocket, telling her, “I know this necklace means a lot to you because you believe your dad left it for you. He’d be so proud of you if he saw how brave and compassionate you’ve become.”

She nodded, accepting her goodness. Before, she’d been self-critical and disappointed in her decisions. But no longer. She saw herself differently, her image one of positivity and self-acceptance.

A leader.

With that thought, she said, “Let’s go.”

“Where?”

Boo didn’t answer. She just trotted ahead, knowing Willy would follow. She followed her inner compass, while her booming pulse pounded in her ears.

She halted at Thom Bombay’s headstone.

Boo’s heart rolled. It seemed her heart was doing a lot of somersaults as a surprise certainty took hold. “The portal is below my father’s fake resting place.”

“It’s where you found the necklace, right?” Willy motioned to her hand.

“If there is a portal, and I enter it, do you think I’d find my dad?”

Willy’s expression turned hard. “You’re not seriously thinking that’s possible, are you?”

Boo shook her head regretfully. “No, but it’s kind of nice to think something like that could be possible.”

“This is messed up,” Willy said, taking a step away from the grave.

“What’s wrong?” Boo asked. “You’re the one who brought the statue here!”

Though she’d been the one to go along with it, spurred on by some mysterious urge inside of her to do it.

“What are we doing?” Willy grappled with the statue. “We have two artifacts that FUC wants, and we’re going to, what? Just bury them here? Or are we supposed to dig and dig and dig until we find some supposed portal?”

“I don’t know,” she admitted, popping the stone from its platinum setting and pocketing the empty pendant and chain.

A gloved Willy placed the stone into the divot under the statue cat’s chin, and the lavender aura lit up, more brightly than ever. Bright enough to illuminate the cemetery. He placed the renewed artifact on her father’s monument, snapping it into the flower holder. “Stand back!”

Boo slid her feet backward, her nerves causing her to pant. Was she doing the right thing?

Hackles rose as the ground quaked. The wind whirled, howling through the trees, and her hair stood on end.

A murder of crows cawed above, their wings beating as they rode the cyclone.

Willy slid his hand into hers, the two fusing their excitement and fear as the grass at their feet faded.

An aurora borealis exploded from her father’s grave, sending Boo reeling as the atmosphere thundered.

Willy yelled, “Get back!”

Boo shouted, “Willy, run!”

They spun but froze in place when faced with a man holding a gun.