by Sydnie MacElroy
[MD2, Leo's hotel room, 5:45AM]
Pot of coffee and cups in hand, Zenya knocked on the door. She hoped that it wasn't too early, but she did know that Leo's alarm clock at home was set for five o'clock, and.. She reluctantly pushed aside a somewhat less than professional thought.
"Who's there," Leo's groggy voice asked from behind the closed door.
"Room service."
Leo chuckled, slid back the chain and opened the door. He appeared in the doorway, sleep-toussled and dressed in pajamas. "G'morning," he mumbled, stepping aside so Zenya could come in.
"Sleeping late," Zenya asked. She put the coffee down on the table, and spotting the maps of the subway system on the dresser, picked them up and sat down.
"I guess," Leo said. He looked at the clock and that seemed to wake his up a bit. "I asked the desk for a wake up call at five. Guess someone didn't get the message."
Zenya grinned. "Typical. I've been thinking about what Jordan said - about getting into the creatures' heads and the bit about the dogs. The problem is merging the concept of pack mentality with a primitive model of human behavior," she said. "However I try to look at it, one thing still puzzles me." She let the thought trail off.
Leo, who had disappeared into the bathroom, poked his head back into the room. "What's that?"
"Hmm? Oh," Zenya said. She had been lost in thought, trying to come up with a solution to the mystery. "The fact that so many of the victims were found only partially eaten. We've already established that these things have incredible strength, or at least enough that one of them was able to move the body of a man apparently without dragging it. In that case, it seems rather wasteful, doesn't it? Food is in short supply if they've had to turn from rats and stray animals to more dangerous prey. So why are they wasting so much of it?"
"Picky eaters? They're only after the good parts? They told us yesterday that not all of the victims had been found. And this *is* New York City, after all. People disappear everyday. How many of those have wandered into the subway tunnels and vanished? Maybe food isn't so scarce as we think?"
"Possibly, but if that's true, then why haven't more bodies been found?"
"Then maybe they aren't killing for food. But I don't buy that either." Leo shrugged. "Let me know when you figure it out. In the meantime, I'm going to hit the shower."
Zenya nodded, already lost in thought, staring at the maps. As she absently poured herself a cup of coffee, a pattern started to emerge. She got up, found the hotel stationary in a drawer and started making a list based on the information Jay and the others had given them about when and where people had disappeared and/or been killed.
As six o'clock rolled around, there was a knock at the door. Zenya got up, looked through the peephole, saw Jim, and muttered "Damn." However, if Jim was the least bit surprised to find her there in Leo's room, with the shower running and Leo nowhere in sight, he didn't show it when she opened the door. She thought that perhaps she ought to be offended by that, but she let it slide.
"All ready to explore the bowels of the city?"
"Yep. I thought we ought to get together to discuss what sort of fire power we need to take along," Jim said. "And of course, where we want to start looking. Those the maps?" He started toward the table where the maps were laid out.
"Mm hmm. Help yourself, I'm through with them for now," Zenya said. She retrieved her list and sat down on the edge of the bed to study it while Jim looked over the maps.
Three thoughts occurred to Zenya almost simultaneously, and for the very simple reason that as she sat down, she detected a very faint scent - she'd spent enough time lately in close proximity to Leo to recognize him by it. That fact reminded her of a college psychology assignment in which she'd had to critique the scientific method employed in an experiment. The experiment in question had been aimed at revealing whether humans could identify each other by scent, the way other animals do - like dogs, and probably like the creatures they were after now. Similarly, most animals mark their territory either to warn away or attract others of their species, a simple enough fact, but one she had been overlooking. And in light of that, the pattern made perfect sense.
"There are four of them," she said. Leo had just emerged from the bathroom, showered dressed and ready for the day. Both he and Jim looked at her with curiosity. "Or should I say four lairs. There could be more than one in each. The one doing most of the killing is probably an immature male. There are two that appear to be older males, or families. Each one averages a kill roughly every six to ten days. There's at least one solitary female among them, probably a much more experienced hunter. She was roaming everyone's territory up until about five months ago, when she appears to have joined up with the younger male. She hasn't been hunting at all for the last two months."
"Which means?"
"She's either dead, pregnant or already taking care of the 'puppies'."
"I don't suppose you can tell us where to find them," Leo asked.
"One break-through at a time."
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NRPG:
I planned to write quite a bit more, at least getting us into the tunnels, but I guess I got a little carried away with this part. ;) So, I'll call this good enough for now, and maybe try to write a bit more when I get back from class tonight - or someone else can take over. :)