Talon pulled Kev up and half-dragged him towards the interior door, Kev's feet scrambling to keep up. "Hold up, Talon!" Kev nearly yelled, his legs flailing.
He did not hold up.
They burst into the club, the dim hallway momentarily slowing the eagleman. Talon blinked a few times, letting his eyes adjust. Kev pushed away from him and braced himself against the wall, his heart beating so hard he could feel it pulsing in his throat.
Talon turned and reached for Kev's arm. "We are not safe here."
Kev pulled his arm away. "Are they here for Abe?"
"I don't know." Talon looked around, his head swiveling, assessing the empty hallway. "We need to move."
"Just give me a sec," Kev said, his legs starting to feel less like jelly. The adrenaline was beginning to subside, replaced by a cold dread. "I need to think."
"Thinking can happen later." Talon reached for his arm again and pulled Kev down the hallway. At the intersection near the auditorium, Talon peeked around the corner towards the main bar. "Oh no." He turned to Kev, his eyes wide and serious. "Listen. I'm going to make a distraction, and you need to hide."
"What? Distraction? No!" Kev whispered, his voice frantic.
"They are inside already, and they'll see us soon." Talon peeked around the corner again before pulling himself back against the wall. "They're coming. When I distract them, run to Mr. Vlad. He might know how to protect you better."
Talon took a deep breath and was about to turn, but Kev caught his arm and, with all his might, dragged Talon back into the garage hallway.
"What are you doing, Kev?!" Talon hissed, surprise warring with urgency on his face.
"Shh!" Kev pulled Talon back further into the dark hallway. "We can escape together."
Talon pulled his arm out of Kev's grasp. "I don't need to escape. You do."
"No," Kev said, his voice firm. He reached for a bookshelf against the wall, one he'd stumbled upon during his first week after visiting Cindy down in the basement. He pulled. With a low groan of well-oiled hinges, it swung open, revealing a dark, narrow staircase leading down. Talon only gave a single glance back into the main club hallway before he ushered Kev through the opening.
Kev burst out into the basement, looking around wildly before choosing a direction: Cindy's office, to his left. Talon stepped out behind him, his sharp eyes scanning the long, shadowy basement corridor before he hustled to catch up with the determined human.
"Max!" Kev shouted as he threw open the office door.
The office was the same—pink, clean, a small woodstove radiating a gentle warmth with a kettle sitting on top. The only thing different was a stark black and white poster on the wall showing a furry figure holding a flag. Well, two things were different. A turtle woman was sitting at Cindy's desk, a spoonful of soup halfway to her mouth, her ancient, wrinkled face a mask of pure surprise.
"Who… who are you?" Kev said, caught completely off guard.
Talon hadn't realized Kev had stopped. He bumped into the small human, sending them both sprawling into the room.
Talon got up first, quickly, and stood between the stunned turtle woman and Kev. He spread his wings and hissed, a low, menacing sound. "I won't let you touch him!"
"Ahh!" the turtle woman exclaimed. She dropped her spoon, which clattered to the floor, and stood, knocking the chair over as she spun and put her arms up between herself and the hissing eagle.
"Wait!" Kev groaned. He rolled onto his back and looked over. "You're Wanda, right?"
The turtle woman's gaze flickered down to the small, pale mammal lying on the floor. "Yes! Please, what is going on?"
"Talon, calm down. She's a club employee," Kev said, pushing himself up.
Talon shook his head vigorously, the feathers on his neck puffing out. "Are you certain, Mr. Kev?"
"You're Fang's assistant," the turtle woman said hesitantly, then her gaze shifted to Talon, and her voice became hopeful. "Then that means you're that hothead bird everyone's been talking about."
Talon deflated at the words. "What? People are talking about me?"
"Never mind that!" Kev said. "The club is getting raided. We don't know what to do."
A nervous laugh came out of Wanda's mouth as she lowered her arms. "This is a strange joke. I thought Horns said you were very polite."
"He's not joking," Talon said, moving to the door to glance out of it.
"Wanda, I know we haven't met before, but you've got to believe us," Kev said, trying to keep himself calm so he wouldn't spook the woman more than he already had. "We saw them. They're in the main bar already. I thought Max might be here, but it's his day off, isn't it?"
Wanda nodded, her ancient face creased with confusion. "If you meant to prank Mr. Max, that is okay. He enjoys that sort of thing. But I don't," she said, beginning to reach for the knocked-over chair. "I'm sorry, but this isn't funny."
"This is a waste of time, Mr. Kev. We need to move," Talon said, still nervously looking down the hallway from the doorway.
"It's not a joke," Kev pleaded. "I would never joke about this. I'm not even funny."
"Look, I've got work that needs doing." Wanda looked Kev up and down. "I know you're young and you need some excitement, but you're much too old to have such a wild imagination. The enforcers raiding Club Fang? Maybe years ago, but now..."
"This is a waste of time." Talon walked back into the office and stood before the turtle woman. "Ms. Wanda, as Fang's personal bodyguard, he has vested the authority in me to tell him when someone doesn't listen to Mr. Kev." He looked down at her. "Do you want me to mention you to Mr. Fang?"
Wanda shook her head, her wrinkled neck retracting slightly into her shell.
"Talon, don't intimidate her!" Kev said. "What the hell's gotten into you?"
Talon grabbed Kev's arm. "The sooner the staff know, the better."
"You're... you're serious?" Wanda said, her voice a quavering whisper.
"Talon is always serious," Kev replied, "even when he shouldn't be."
"Because this sort of thing can happen," Talon stated flatly.
"If you're serious, that means..." Wanda's voice trailed off. She turned and pulled open a drawer of the desk, retrieving a massive, jangling key ring.
Kev watched her, surprised at how quickly she moved now that she believed them. "What should I do? Is there anywhere I can hide?" he asked.
She pushed past them and grabbed a handbag from one of the armchairs. "Hide from the enforcers? I don't know, this is unprecedented."
"What are you doing then?" Talon demanded.
"I need to tell the other cleaners," she said, already standing by the door, "and I need to talk with Gus."
"But what should I do?" Kev asked, his voice rising slightly.
"I don't..." Her voice trailed off. "I don't know. But I need to go. If Mr. Fang wakes up, there is going to be a mess." Before leaving, she turned and said, "I'm sorry for thinking you were joking." And with that, she was gone.
Kev turned and slumped into one of Cindy's plush armchairs. The kettle on the stove began to whistle, the piercing sound making him jump. Talon pulled it off the woodstove, the noise cutting off abruptly.
"Are you thirsty, Kev?" he asked.
Kev pulled his hands away from his face and looked up. Talon held the kettle with a small smile on his face. "It was a joke," he said. "See? I'm not always serious."
Kev just sighed and said, "Seriously?"
Talon frowned and put the kettle back down. "I don't think this is a good place for us to hide."
"I know, I wasn't planning on hiding here," Kev said. "I was just hoping Max would be here. He'd know what to do."
"Ms. Wanda was not very helpful," Talon stated.
"Can you blame her?" Kev said, slowly standing back up. "I know you're the king of introductions, but that one was pretty bad."
"That wasn't bad," Talon insisted.
Kev pushed open the office door. "Not bad? Oh god, how are you introducing yourself to people?"
"It depends on the situation," Talon said.
Kev looked around the basement. Lanterns lit the different aisles of supplies, and the multitude of seemingly sporadically spaced doors made it look like an odd Hanna-Barbera hallway gag and a medieval box store mixed together.
"Where is the best place in the club?" Talon said, walking closely beside Kev, his head on a swivel.
"The best place in the club is the pool," Kev said sarcastically. "What do you mean, 'best place'?"
"Somewhere familiar, with good sightlines and multiple exits," Talon said, his tone matter-of-fact.
Kev sighed. "I don't know... maybe the conservatory? It had big windows and more than one door."
"No," Talon said immediately. "If someone is outside, we could not hide in there." Kev nodded; he had spotted Barry and Kaiote in there earlier. Ugh, I hope they're alright, he thought.
They walked through the basement. It was eerily quiet. The usual bustle of cleaners coming in and out of the doors was gone. Everyone must know what's going on by now, Kev thought. Are they going to arrest everyone? They had a lot of officers here. It definitely wasn't just a wellness check.
"The basement is quite large," Talon said as they passed the lower entrance to the fighting pit.
Kev stopped and looked into the sand-floored opening. Some light from the main floor cast a large, dusty ring down into the center of the pit. Kev froze. He could hear someone above, just out of sight.
"We're sweeping each floor! Why are you down here?" a gruff voice called out from above. "Top to bottom! Get your tail upstairs!"
Kev and Talon looked at each other and quietly stepped back from the opening. Talon put his hand on Kev's shoulder and urged him to continue down the corridor. Ahead of them, the basement opened up a bit, with fewer shelves and more light from the main staircase that led down.
At the intersection, Talon finally stopped pushing Kev forward and looked up the stairs. "If they are on the second floor," he whispered, "we might be able to escape into the park."
"The park?" Kev said. "It's like a five-minute drive."
Talon nodded. "Only a fourteen-minute run."
"Maybe a fourteen-minute run for you, but I'd be holding my side before I got to the security checkpoint," Kev said, looking around, his mind racing. "I just need some time to think."
A sound made them both freeze: footsteps on the stairs. Kev's legs once again scrambled to keep underneath him as Talon grabbed him and pulled him down the hall once more.
"Hey!" a voice called out from the stairs. "City Enforcers! Everyone outside! This is a search!"
Talon did not slow down. He pulled Kev further away, Kev desperately kicking at the ground while Talon half-carried him.
"Stop!" the voice called again. "I can hear you!"
Talon tossed Kev forward a bit and turned, heaving a heavy wooden shelf down across the aisle with a tremendous crash of splintering wood and clattering supplies. Kev stumbled as he scrambled to his feet, his adrenaline surging back, making it difficult for him to coordinate himself. He slapped away Talon's hand and said, "I can run!"
"Then run!" Talon said, pushing Kev forward.
"Stop!" the voice yelled again from behind the wreckage.
Kev found it hard to keep himself running in a straight line, his arms hitting and scraping against the shelves as Talon pushed him forward. It was worse than being dragged. They made it to the end of the hall before they knew it.
"It's a dead end," Talon said, glancing over his shoulder. The sound of someone running towards them, scrambling over the fallen shelf, echoed through the stone-lined hall.
Looking at the doors around them, Kev's mind raced. They were on the opposite end of the club from Cindy's office, which meant they were on the opposite end of the club from Vlad's office on the first floor. The doors on the wall in front of him... one of them had to lead to...
Talon turned and spread his wings, letting out a piercing screech. "If you come any closer, I will defend myself!"
Kev grabbed Talon's wing and pulled him towards the door on his right. It just had to lead them there.