“I think we should get going,” Beast said eventually, and Shadow realized that he was right. Unlike humans, Shadow could perfectly see in the dark, but the colors around them changed, and despite the still-bright hue of the sky, their surroundings had dimmed.
Knight rose and stretched before approaching his bike. “Okay, I’ll be on the move. Wait for my signal,” he said, putting on his helmet.
Three days ago, Knight had approached a young woman who worked at the property. In the casual setting of the bar, he managed to charm her despite a disguise that involved a fake beard. After hours of flirting, Knight had convinced her that he was an electrician in need of a job, which ended up with her offering him one. There were some little niggles with the wiring at the Lowe Estate, and Knight dealt with those like any other professional. Except that he also made sure to have a look at the monitoring system and had discreetly corrupted the standby power system. The generator and batteries were only intended for emergency use, so no one would notice anything amiss for as long as normal power supply continued.
He would now cut off the property from outside sources of electricity, and that would give them at least fifteen minutes, maybe half-an-hour before anyone became too worried about what would seem like a case of power outage.
The plan was simple enough. Once the electricity was off, Jake would create a diversion, so that Shadow could get the Pigeon Heart out of the safe without being noticed. But since Shadow couldn’t leave his body too far behind and the property was so vast, someone needed to take care of his physical form within its bounds.
Joker was to remain on the lookout for police and other threats, and as soon as Knight rode off to the transmission tower, which supplied the energy to the Lowe Estate, everyone else donned their ski masks and gloves, and descended toward the property. Shadow had the ability of being able to see in the dark, so he walked first, leading all the others to the fence they needed to cross.
Fragrant wind tousled Shadow’s hair and snuck under his clothes, stabbing him with chill, but Gray’s hand on his back provided enough warmth for him to ignore the discomfort and continue leading the march downhill. Shadow evaded large obstructions with ease, and while at one point Vars ended up stumbling over some rock, they reached the wall surrounding the estate fairly quickly.
This wasn’t the first time Shadow got to see Jake transforming into a gargoyle, but watching the darkness emerge out of him and form a thick skin of rock hard muscle was still impressive. Like a moth emerging from its cocoon, the gargoyle spread his wings, towering over them and shaking his head as if he needed to adjust to his form.
Vars patted Jake’s arm and smiled. “Good boy. Getting easier every time, huh?”
Jake let out a raspy laugh and licked the outstretched hand. Moments later, Vars’s cell phone buzzed, and he discreetly checked the message, so that the screen wasn’t visible in the dark.
“It’s Knight,” he said, and in the same moment, the darkness around them became even dimmer when the lights that created a pale glow on the sky above the Lowe Estate went out as planned.
“Let’s go,” Beast said and patted Shadow on the back, which was so surprising Shadow forgot what he was doing for a moment. He had one of Jake’s massive arms wrapping around his waist to remind him.
Jake grabbed Beast with his other arm, while Gray crawled on Jake’s back and held on to the twisted horns on the gargoyle’s head.
“Remember what we practiced, Jake. Think about the wind and keep yourself steady,” Vars said and patted Jake’s side, but there was little time for encouragement and well-wishing. Nobody could guarantee how long the power would remain off, so there was no time to waste.
The giant wings flapped, ballooning with air, and then Shadow felt himself being torn away from the ground. He took a deep breath, suddenly aware that his earthly life, which he was ready to fight for, was hanging by a thread. That if Jake made a mistake and dropped him, his body wouldn’t survive the fall.
But there was nothing he could do. He took a rapid gulp of air when a sudden gust of the wind pushed Jake lower, bringing Shadow’s legs that bit closer to the tangles of razor wire on top of the tall fence. Beast’s weight must have been greater than his, leaving the flight even less balanced, so Shadow did the only thing he could and curled his knees to his chest as they floated above the sharp teeth of the wire. But despite his shoes missing the trap by mere inches, all he could think of was Gray having to balance on top of the gargoyle as they started a rapid descent toward the other side of the wall.