Shorts: The Furry Years Read Online Free PDF

much of the brunt of it. I found that trashing things did help with my temper. Of course Rasha was pretty mad about my attempts at sheltering her, and made it very clear that she had a mind of her own and was prepared to use it.
    "I'm just worried about you okay?" I said when we had finally settled down. "You don't have the experience dealing with people. If anything happened to you I'd be devastated!"
    "You can't protect me forever. And I don't need it anyway. You heard what Jackson said, nobody'll mess with us!"
    I sighed. "Remember what guns are? People will mess with us all right. And it doesn't matter how tough you are when someone has a gun."
    "Oh," she said quietly, "I hadn't realized that."
    "That's what I'm worried about, Hon -- you getting shot."
    "What about you?" she asked, looking concerned.
    "Hmmp! I've always known when to duck." I grinned, "Plus I don't take chances. So don't worry about me, just listen to me when I tell you to do something okay?"
    "As long as it's work." She grinned suddenly. "But not after!"
     
    So we drove into Portland early on Monday, and spent the morning getting outfitted by Marshall Jackson.
    "Dusters?" I asked, surprised. "Why dusters?"
    "Cause its the only body armor they got which will fit you two. Also it's a lot more comfortable than a vest. Trust me, I tried one."
    "Sure, okay. What about guns?"
    "Go down to the armory later and take what you want. Standard issue isn't gonna fit in your hands either." He smiled at the both of us.
    "Now raise your right hands and repeat after me ..."
    By the end of the day, we had a case and were out questioning people.
    "Jay wasn't kidding," Rasha said as we headed home. "There's a lot of trouble already, and so many of those folks are so upset by what happened, I'm surprised they even talked to us!"
    "Well he was right about one thing, those people trust us 'cause we're in the same boat as they are." I turned and gave her a quick grin, "And we sure look mean enough to keep the peace!"
    We both had a good laugh at that.
    It was the last good laugh we had that week.
     
     
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    The next day started well before sunrise. Somebody had kidnapped another changer, the fifth in as many days. They were all female, all lookers too. Jay had the idea that somebody was putting together a menagerie. We all had to agree on that one. After all, only fifteen years ago white slavers had worked Portland . Some thought they had never really stopped.
    I grumbled to myself as we looked over the victim's personal effects.
    "What's the matter Hon?" Rasha asked, looking up from a photo of the missing girl. It had only been taken yesterday.
    "I feel so impotent, outclassed. I'm not a detective! I don't have the training or experience to deal with all this. But these folks either don't want to talk to the regular cops, cause they're like us now..."
    "Or they don't want to talk to us, because they aren't the ones who have changed." She finished for me. She showed me the picture of the girl. "A real fox all right, literally."
    I looked it over and nodded. She was a looker, I noticed the pictures of her from a few weeks ago. "She must have felt this was a gift from god or something." I nodded at the pictures that showed a less than attractive woman, "Now she's been kidnapped and who knows what else, it's just not right."
    "So what are we going to do about it then?"
    "Whatever we can." I sighed, "I don't like the idea of giving up very much."
    "Me neither."
    "Well lets go talk to the neighbors again."
    Rasha nodded and we made the rounds another time.
    The next day we got our first real clue.
    "I can't believe it's that simple!" Rasha said, shaking her head in disbelief.
    I shrugged, "I wish we had noticed this common thread earlier."
    "But who would have though that they were picking their victims by newspaper articles?"
    "Probably someone with a lot more experience then either of us have