"You were assured" Tasha replied. "Precisely who were you assured by?"
Gunther gave a thin smile. "These conversations are delightful, but perhaps is time that I share these dialogues with counsel? In other words, I'm not saying anything else until I get a lawyer."
+++++++++++++++
"I freaked out" Katie confessed. "I mean, obviously there was a problem with the berries, but I blew up, and that was just the wrong thing to do, I mean, with rabbits of all people! Look, I just can't trust myself, I'm so goddamn angry about Harry."
"I know" Zack replied "Looking back, I shouldn't have sent you there. But I think all of the senior huskies felt the same way. We all knew him, we all know that, that thing isn't him, but its like we can't even mourn."
"I know its not her fault, but every time I see her, particularly with that smug, 'I'm so much more enlightened than you' smile, I just want to throw things. I just want her out of here, and I want the people who did this to Harry punished."
"Look, I was thinking, tonight maybe the four of us--you, me, the twins, the people who knew him and loved him--could get together and have a wake for Harry. Share memories, that kind of thing. You into it?"
"Yeah" said Katie. "That sounds like a good idea."
+++++++++++++++++
It was the first day that Goldie was truly treated as just another husky in the pack, and it was the best feeling she had had about herself since her metamorphosis. Obviously, she had some catching up to do, but with what she had learned about the park from Zack (and, to be honest, from the Lone Wolf's memories) and Sam's help, she was quickly assimilating the knowledge she needed.
She was still sorting out what she felt about last night. It wasn't like James had had much of a sex life to serve as a base for comparison. Although last night hadn't been the kind of mind-blowing orgasmic sex women had in the porn videos James had collected, it had made her feel good about her female body and its potential for pleasure. (And since Park husky bodies were deliberately sterile, she didn't have to worry about pregnancy.)
But the main thing she felt was the emotional closeness with Sam, closer than she had ever felt to another person. How good it had felt to wake up in his arms, to feel loved and cherished. Wow, she thought, I really am turning into a girl.
+++++++++++++++++
"Look" said Tasha. "We all get excited with a new body, lord knows I did. And we do things that might be against our better judgement. And of course, you also have the excitement of a new gender to deal with."
Agent Sherman waited. With a buildup like this, it wasn't going to be good.
"But shacking up with a lawyer for the entity that the Bureau is investigating? Does that strike you as a distant cousin of a good idea?"
"No, Special Agent Yereminiva."
"Have you said anything to him about the state of our investigations into the park? Anything at all?"
"No, Special Agent Yereminiva."
"Very well. Naturally, if you are lying to me you may regard your career as over. In the meantime, move the hell out of his apartment and into a motel. You can party it up with the gay boys every night for all I care, Dan, but not with anyone associated with the park, is that clear?"
"Yes, Special Agent Yereminiva."
"Dismissed."
++++++++++++++++++
Cold slept the whole night through cold losing time not making it south as quickly as planned cold need to go need to go now not stop carrying heavy things cold.