Operation Crunch, It's a Go!

Summer reading in Talbot's Peak...

Summer howls and yowls, shapeshifter lovers.

Our Talbot's Peak saga continues. The bad guys have made pests of themselves, and are harassing our beloved mayor, Gil. Well, they just might be real sorry after Operation Crunch.

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Operation Crunch, It's a Go!

Beads of sweat formed on his forehead as Gil opened his bottom desk drawer. Holy Peanuts! This was the third time this week that two state officials had demanded a meeting with him. They'd all but goon-rushed him this time, and were just now leaving the mayor's mansion.

On top of that slick-bark tree, when he'd explained his constituents believed in taking care of themselves, and their neighbors... that there'd been a referendum against accepting state aid... then, when he'd told them about the case he'd presented against fracking because the local farmers and ranchers were being adversely affected... the two slick-willies in suits had threatened him with a contrived indictment for a crime he'd obviously never committed.

Gil sucked in a breath, and willing himself to remain calm, he picked up the  receiver. The old landline phone was untraceable and hardened against digital surveillance. Most important, it was a direct line to the library, and Kitty.

"You okay, Gil?" she immediately asked. "My spy-tracker team said those two state guys looked like they could chew nails."

"Yeah, okay. I might be under indictment, though."

"For what?!" Kitty burst out.

"No clue. That wasn't specified...not exactly." Visions of an intimidating chamber with a jury that had already been prepped to condemn him played in Gil's head.

"No worries," Kitty assured after a moment. "Dante will handle anything they legally throw at you. Whatever case they file can be wiped out of existence on their computers."

"Any paperwork can be conveniently not received," Gil added.

"That's the idea," Kitty encouraged, her tone bright.  "However, it's definitely time for action...for a beastly message to be sent."

"Message to be sent," Gil repeated in a cautious voice. "What do you have in mind?"

"If you don't know the plan, mayor, you won't have to speak a falsehood."

"Are werewolves involved?" Gil broke out into another sweat.

"I assure you no blood will be spilled. But think a Halloween prank gone wild."

"Oh," Gil paused, "you said no blood would be spilled."

***

"No blood," Kitty firmly assured, even as impatience clawed at her. "No physical harm...that is, unless they harm themselves. Sit tight, mayor," she added. "I've got to hang up now. Time to go operational."

"Operational," Gil practically squeaked in what Kitty thought of as his squirrel voice.

"Goodbye, mayor." Kitty placed the receiver in its cradle, and picked up her modified walkie talkie. To keep communications private, the frequency had been adjusted by Dante's cyber team.

"It's a go. Durk, Zeo, it's a go. Tail them to the ambush point, and report. Wait for my final okay before Operation Crunch. Over and out."

"Yes, ma'am," two over-eager, male voices replied in unison.

In the background, Kitty heard the telltale growls of two lightweight motorcycles.
The nineteen year old shapeshifters -- one a werewolf and the other a sabertooth tiger -- affectionately called their customized rides, speed racers.

"The targets are in the car," Durk, the werewolf, reported on his walkie talkie.

"They're pulling out now. We're on the case," Zeo, the sabertooth, whispered in his tigery snarl.

The sound of their speed racers crackled over Kitty's walkie talkie as they peeled out.

"Remember, any deviation in their route, let me know immediately. Over and out." Kitty half-shouted.

"No problem. We got it," Durk yelled over the roar of his motorcycle.

Kitty turned her attention to Blade Runner, the Peak's own ET rabbit shapeshifter. He'd proven to be invaluable in many a battle to save Talbot's Peak territory, including against epic fight against the mutant mammoth werewolf. 

Sauntering closer to her desk, Blade Runner gave her a lazy wink, then his trademark grin.

"Ready for Operation Crunch?" she asked, appreciating the man's suave *I'm cool* demeanor.

"Operation UFOS Are Real is about to commence." The amusement in his voice couldn't be missed, and Kitty could imagine Blade Runner's rabbit ears twitching in their characteristic way whenever he shifted to man-rabbit humanoid, instead of his human form, as he was now.

"I will advise if the targets deviate from their route." Kitty lifted the tiny round com device he'd given her.

"Later, Dante's smitten kitten." With a jaunty salute, Blade Runner spun around, heading for his small disc craft. Earlier, he'd landed the craft, fully cloaked of course, on top O'Malley's Gin Joint. Under Dante's direction -- three years ago -- the flat roof had been reinforced to hold the space ship's weight when a leaking problem was repaired.

***

"Yeah, yeah. Got your carrot juice brew right here," O'Malley greeted, shoving the tall stein toward Blade Runner.

"You're quite sure you don't want a complementary spin around the solar system?"  Blade Runner cocked a brow.

"Like the feel of good ole Earth beneath my paws, spaceman," O'Malley grumped, then began wiping down the already clean bar. "Just make sure you put a big bad scare into those revenuer types."

"Just for you." Blade Runner tossed down a large swallow, then brew in hand he strode for the stairway that led to the roof.

Within minutes, he was inside, quaffing his carrot juice ale, and doing a system's check. "All systems go. Firing up the jets...as the Earthers say."

Blade Runner engaged the anti-grav, and ascended over the town. Who would have thought he'd actually enjoy being marooned on backwater planet Earth? And, even more surreal, have an alpha werewolf as a good and true friend. So universe-far, Dante always had his back, and never once threatened to put the predator's bite on him.

But, as Blade Runner had come to understand, fate was stranger than fiction.

High in the blue Montana sky -- above the usual flight path of the birds -- Blade Runner touched the accelerate control. He zoomed toward the ambush spot he and Kitty had decided on.

With his disc ship on auto-pilot, he stepped back and stripped off his human attire, right down to his shiny silver skivvies. Really, one of his spacesuits.

"Eh, what's up, doc?" he parodied, as he morphed into his version of Bugs Bunny.  After tucking a helmet under his arm, Blade Runner gave his tail a good shake.

If those moron clowns in lawyer suits didn't believe in UFOS, or an alien rabbit... Blade Runner smirked... they just might change their ignorant tune after he finished with their arses. Oops, he thought, nope, he wasn't doing the probe-abduct thing. Not again. Once was enough with that monster hunter idjit.

TO BE CONTINUED...
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Wishing you love and passion on the wild side ~ 

Savanna 

Savanna Kougar ~ Run on the Wild Side of Romance