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To Catch a Guide
by Hawk
He’d tested a seven and that was without a Guide at his side. The problem was in maintaining control. Regulations stipulated that he work with a Guide because of numerous documented incidents involving Guideless Sentinels. Public outcry against such happenings had been overwhelming, thus the Sentinel Regulations of Operations were drafted and voted into law. He wasn’t exactly angered by the Regs, but they did govern his life and he thought he had the right to be put out by them. After all, it wasn’t like he was in danger of losing control and going on a rampage like the feral Sentinels had.
But he sucked it up and worked with the parade of Temporary Guides the PD employed. His boss, Simon Banks, continually harassed him about getting a permanent Guide, but Jim didn’t want the hassle of the testing and touring the Guide Houses, the interviews, trial contracts, and the rest of the red tape that went along with it. Besides, he’d looked – way back when, when his senses had first come on line and he was star-struck by the whole idea of being a Sentinel. He’d looked and had been immensely disappointed in the slim pickings available at the local markets as well as by the shyster salesmen he’d encountered. They could tell him all day that they had the “perfect Guide” for him, but he hadn’t felt anything for any of them. None of them had sparked his Sentinel instincts and he’d walked away from every last one.
But now, just when he’d given up on ever getting a Guide of his own – he’d found him. Unfortunately, he was damaged and Jim would never be allowed to own him. His skin tingled and he felt even more than he heard the low whine as the cleanup crew began loading the cages onto handtrucks and wheeling them out of the illegal laboratory and into the waiting truck. The subjects of this experiment would be moved to a secure facility and, most probably disappear forever. Jim thought it very probable that they would be euthanized – after the effects of the experiment were studied, of course. But not his Guide – never his Guide. He could feel the rightness of his Guide seep into him and there was no way he was ever going back to using Temporary Guides. With this one, he could easily surpass the testing scale. As he tuned all of his senses onto his Guide, he thought he could very easily attain and sustain a twelve rating – and there had never been a twelve in all the years testing had been carried out.
A hand landing lightly on his arm startled Jim. “You okay, Detective?”
Jim nodded and then shrugged. “I –”
Simon pulled a cigar out of his breast pocket and clamped it firmly between his teeth, chewing on the end a bit before pulling it from his mouth and gesturing with it. “Spill it, Ellison. What’s up with you?”
“My Guide, sir.”
Simon choked and ended up coughing for a brief moment. “You Guide? Jim,” he said earnestly, “you don’t have a Guide.”
Jim turned toward Simon, his eyes filling with tears. “I didn’t have a Guide, Captain – but my true Guide is in there.” He reached out a hand, pointing into the facility where row upon row of cages could still be seen.
Simon shook his head. “No, Jim. You have to be mistaken. There is nothing in there that can help you.”
Jim sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. “Simon, I felt him. I felt my senses snap into place and soar into levels I’ve never experienced before.” He paused. “I felt the pull of a true bondmate, Simon. I felt him in here,” he pointed to his head, “and in here.” Jim finished with his hand over his heart. “Please, Simon. You have to help me save him.”
Simon sighed. “I don’t know if I can,” he said after a moment, “but I’ll see what I can find out.”
Just then the two men heard a ruckus from inside what they had come to think of as the cage room. Jim’s heart raced as he realized what he was hearing and he took off in that direction, Simon close on his heels and muttering curses under his breath that Jim had no trouble hearing – even without a Temporary Guide present to help ground him.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” Jim growled as he got to the cage holding his Guide.
The technician what had been trying to load the cage on the handtruck looked up at the irate Sentinel, opening and closing his mouth a couple of times as he obviously tried to answer the question and failed. “Sorry, sir,” he finally stammered, “but I was just t-trying to get this cage loaded and this beast won’t let me. He tried to rip my fingers off the minute I touched the blasted cage. I bet it’s got rabies. Needs to be put down, it—”
Jim growled and then smiled evilly as the technician visibly paled and backed away from the irate Sentinel. He then squatted down, putting his face at a level with the cage. “Hey Chief,” he said calmly. “We need to get you out of here, okay?”
A low whine greeted his words and Jim stared into baleful blue eyes. A tongue snaked out and quickly lapped at the fingers Jim had pressed against the mesh of the cage and then the wolf sat back on its haunches, cocking its head as if listening for something. Jim smiled, nodded once, and stood again. The technician was staring at him with a look of incredulity on his face that, in other circumstances, would have been quite comical.
“Be careful with him. I will be following you and will be checking on him at the other end,” Jim said gruffly.
The technician merely nodded and stepped forward again. As he reached trembling fingers toward the wolf’s cage again, the wolf growled.
“Chief!” Jim said, smiling when the wolf immediately stopped growling and looked at him. “Let him get you out of here. I’ll work on getting you out of the cage once you’re in our facility.”
The wolf whined and lay down, pillowing his head on his paws. He whined softly as the cage was manhandled onto the handtruck. As the technician was about to leave with the cage, Simon reached out and pulled the card off the front of the cage.
“Blair Sandburg,” he said softly, looking down at the card which held a picture of a smiling young man with long russet curls and bright blue eyes. He jumped when the wolf barked once. “Holy shit. We’d heard these bastards were experimenting with Guides and their spirit animals but forcing them to change and then keeping them there – none of us believed it possible.”
Jim nodded. “I know, Simon – but that wolf is Blair Sandburg and he is my Guide.” As the technician began to wheel Blair’s cage away, Jim turned to follow. “I’m not leaving him there, Simon. Somehow, I will convince them to release him to me and somehow, I have to figure out how to allow him to change back.”
Simon sighed softly as he followed his detective out of the room and then out into the sunshine. “What are you going to do?” he asked as the cage was loaded onto the truck.
“I’m going to ask Incacha. If anyone knows how to reverse this, he will.”
END