Second Chances & New Beginnings: A New Start

Chapter Seven

After we left the Toys R Us we headed to the food court where Jack decided that we should all have something from a local New York Fries, and I got to choose a chili cheese poutine while both Jack had something similar and Vivian had a butter chicken poutine with extra chili-flakes.

"Good grief momma... what you tryin' ta do? Melt your tongue?" I commented since I'd never really had a taste for hot and spicy food.

Jack chuckled before he turned to me and softly said, "Your Momma's always had a taste for food that's a bit spicy, even for my taste buds."

I shivered and then paused swivelling my ears till I caught the sound of a familiar voice.

"Mel, we have to do something, they have 'Manda and they say that if we don't do something she will wish she was dead." I meeped softly since I knew that voice well, she was #3... in my old crew when we were on the job we only ever used numbers, though I knew the other three members of the core group. I had been #2 and my special tasks had been all to do with my particular talents. #3 was the youngest member of our team, but regardless of that she was one of the most valuable. Helen O'Shea was probably one of the best pick-locks and safe crackers that I'd ever met in the past ten years but she did have a bad habit of looking before she leapt, though that was probably due to her age and type. She was a fiery young cougar morph of only 18 and she had a tendency to wear her heart on her sleeve.

I was able to concentrate to pick up the other end of the conversation, though it wasn't as clear and coming across the small speaker of a cellphone.

"Forget it Hel, we are a broken team now." Came the rather dispirited voice of Melinda Hamilton, the leader of our team and the one who helped me set the whole damned thing up three years ago, though I'd first met Mel, a short time after I'd run away from home when I was fourteen. I'd learned more from her in ten years than I cared to recall.

"Mel don't you understand they are going to..." Came Helen's desperate sounding voice.

"Hel don't you get it? Even with Dar what you're asking would be damned difficult, I mean he's good, but I'm not sure he's really that good!" Came the snarled reply from the team's lioness. "Unless you want to turn around and assault the Nailheads to get her back we're stuck until Dar gets back from the trouble that he's in." I felt my ears fold slightly and I lost whatever Helen said in response to that but I found myself looking down at my lap and almost crying.

When Jack saw how my mood had changed he gently hugged me, "What's wrong kitten?" He asked and I could hear the concern in his voice.

I looked up at him and wondered if I should tell him what I'd heard was going on. I mean one of the main things that we'd always promised was that we'd never reveal to anybody that wasn't a member of the crew, the names of the other members of the crew. I tried to pick up the conversation again but I guess that either Helen had left the food court, or she'd finished her conversation. After a moment more of considering it I looked up at him, "Not here Jack, this isn't the place for this." I told him in a tone that I hoped conveyed that I was serious, and that something was going on.

Vivian was about to speak up when Jack shook his head, "Viv we have to trust him when he says this isn't the right place for this conversation."

"What do you mean Jack?" She asked, while keeping her gaze on me.

"Viv what I mean is that our cub overheard something that neither of us could hear, and whatever it was is deeply worrying." Jack said before using a wet wipe from the backpack that he'd slung around the back of his chair, to clean my muzzle. "Now let's go, when we reach the truck I think Daren will be more than ready to inform us what he knows."