Double crap. “He lost one of his hunters?”
“What should have been a drug bust turned into a terrorism event. The hunter stopped the terrorism event, but she died in the process. Henry finished the job himself and cleaned house, which is why he was even in the running for you. Law enforcement needs handlers who can get their hands dirty. Only someone capable of understanding the job in action can really handle somebody doing that job.”
“What else could he have done?”
“He could have brought in another hunter to protect his own neck. Anyway, that’s the job that landed Henry in the big times. He gave half the bounty value for that job to the hunter’s surviving family, and I suspect the other half is what has been paying for the nice things your family is enjoying right now. He would have given the entire bounty to the family, but the family refused. He was given two easy but high-end hunters to start him off, so he’s doing well for himself.”
“They refused? Why?”
“Henry has relationships with all of his hunters and their families. They knew exactly what happened, and they knew he finished what she started. To them, it wasn’t fair they took all the money when he finished the job. They ended up donating most of it to charity. I’m guessing his version of charity is making sure his family gets ahead for a change. And with the number of children your parents have? There is no getting ahead. There is staying afloat, but there’s no getting ahead. I’m looking forward to those days, personally. I’m not sure how having mixed litters will change things, but I expect there will be a lot of hissing, purring, and roaring in our future household.”
“We need a bigger house than what my parents have, and we can pillage anything I have left over after my face is fixed for this purpose. Every penny. But every litter will get a bedroom to share. There will be no multi-litter bedrooms. We can have a larger bedroom for if any of the litters wish for a multi-litter bedroom, but every litter will have a bedroom. And we’ll get little nooks installed in each bedroom to accommodate every kitten in the litter. Privacy matters. Unless the litters wish to form a cuddle pile on the floor making use of a bean bag bed.”
“Let me guess. You have always wanted a bean bag bed.”
“Maybe.”
“Uh huh.”
“Almost as badly as I want a face that doesn’t make the kittens cry,” I admitted. “I want one big enough I get lost in it. Eaten by the bean bag. Only to be seen after someone fishes me out of it. You will be able to find me through listening for the purrs while I roll in my nest.”
“Are you sure you’re a cat?”
“Hey, I’m not just a cat. I’m the best of cats. I’m a proud and majestic lynx.”
“Who plans on getting eaten by a bean bag, expecting me to rescue you after locating you by the sounds of your purrs.”
“I have needs. That happens to be one of my needs.”
“I’m not sure that counts as proud or majestic, Harri.”
“I am very proud of my needs. And I don’t have to do anything to be majestic. It just happens.” I made sure my laptop was using Sebastian’s phone for the internet, as I needed to take mine to the store and get a plan that allowed for the internet. “Am I spending a bazillion hours tunneling to get to the CDC’s servers today?”
“No. If you try that nonsense, I’m pulling this truck over, you’re driving, and I’ll do the work.”
“I was onboard with you pulling over until you threatened to make me drive while you worked. That was not the fun place I was hoping you’d be going with that,” I complained.
“Once we are in a vehicle we don’t have to return to someone else, I’m sure I can find some almost private location to pull over so we can entertain ourselves for a while.”
“I feel I was not adequately prepared for my general hormone levels this week.” I heaved a sigh and went to work logging into the bounty hunter system, which spewed a bunch of flags in my general direction. Most were payment confirmations, but as I needed to click on each one to make it go away, I yowled my frustration with the system.
Sebastian laughed at me. “Now you know my pain, my little lynx. That’s what happens to me every time you go on a job blitz. I get those damned banners warning me I’d have to worry about how you’re planning on hurting yourself next.”
“I don’t plan it, it just happens. But I did good this week. I bruised a knuckle on an idiot’s face, and other than that, I emerged without a scratch. And nobody can blame me for that bruise. That asshole’s head had nothing but rocks in it. How can anyone be that stupid?”
“That’s a good question, although I did enjoy watching you bruise your knuckles on that guy’s head. He actually thought it was a good idea to slap a cop’s ass.”
“He’s lucky that cop didn’t flatten him. I saved his life, Sebastian. If I hadn’t distracted the cop indulging in violence, she would have killed him. She’s a bear. A hybrid bear. He slapped the ass of a hybrid bear.”
“I want to know who she hired for her uniform, because it seems really useful to have her clothes magically adjust to handle her hybrid form. However, I about had a heart attack when she picked you up so you wouldn’t kill the bear. She tucked you under her arm like you weighed nothing, and then she clobbered the idiot and knocked him out.”
I nodded, as the cop could have ripped me in half with ease. “She was amazing.”
Sebastian chuckled. “That was some pretty nice morning entertainment, especially when you started caterwauling you couldn’t collect the bounty if you couldn’t drag him off and finish turning him in. Her solution to that problem was hilarious. The bear just dragged you both to the CDC location down the street, and she even gave you credit for the capture. She was just containing my cranky kitten so there wouldn’t be any unfortunate accidents, as is her job as an outstanding member of law enforcement.”
“I would have subdued him without her help. Or her dinner-plate sized paw. Hybrid bears have bigger paws than I do, and this really isn’t fair.”
“You still have the biggest paws in the cat kingdom, so there’s that. Once you get through your flags, there’ll be a folder under Loureni’s bounty for you to browse through. I helpfully assigned the bounty to you, and I abused my powers as your handler to mark it as accepted. It wasn’t an optional bounty, anyway.”
“I’m sure you can make it up to me at some later time.” I finished sorting through my flags, rolling my eyes at the notification I had been assigned a handler. “The CDC really wants me to be certain I’m aware I am being handled.”
“I’ve been enjoying my job more than I have in the past. It’s good to be the handler.”
Once I successfully navigated the CDC’s system, I went into the folder for the Loureni job, sighing over the collection of files, which ranged from autopsy reports, police records, education records, and everything the government had on the man that might be relevant for the investigation. “Am I even qualified to see this stuff, Mr. Mane? I don’t have a college degree. Do I need a degree for this stuff?”
“No. You don’t even need a degree to be a cop in the United States.”