“Fuck.” Sam swore under his breath as they headed into a busier part of town. The situation was getting a little riskier and Sam was almost tempted to delay their confrontation for another day, letting tonight just be a night of more recon. But he knew that wouldn’t actually do them any good, they would continue to run into this same situation every day. If the Hoods hadn’t insisted on taking a more cautious approach, they would’ve already gone in and eliminated the target by now. There would’ve been casualties, sure. But casualties were unavoidable it seemed. Continuing to follow, he watched as their target went into a hotel and he sighed. “Take point at the exits, I’m going in alone.” he commanded over the radio.

“You sure about that, Red?” one of his squad radioed back.

“Yes, because I trust you guys to have my back.” Sam said, and he meant it too. His team was dependable, and they had been through some pretty hairy situations together. “Grimm, I’m going to need you to watch my gear. Going to have to strip down for this.” He wouldn’t go in completely unarmed of course. But while his bulkiness might not catch much attention on the street, maybe just a weird look or two, it would make him stand out like a sore thumb in a luxury hotel. After dropping off his gear with Mikey, Sam headed into the hotel and over to the front desk. He had to now figure out where the target was and how to get to him, already concocting a story to get him in. 

“Hi, I’m here to see Eddie Kudo…” He held up his phone to show a picture. “We, uh, matched on Howlr and he invited me up to his room.” The woman at the front desk’s eyes went wide and her cheeks turned a bright pink. Flustered, she took a quick look at her computer. 

“Uhh, he’s in room 1512…” She said, “But I should call him first to confirm.” However, by the time she had gotten to the latter half of her sentence, Sam had already turned and headed straight for the elevator. He wasn’t concerned about the lock. One of the few benefits to this nontraditional mission was that the Red Hoods had gone out of their way to supply them with extra tech for things like this, they were going to great lengths to assure no alarm was raised. 

Once he reached the 15th floor, he walked down the hall to the room. Luckily for him, there was no one else in the hallway. It took him a moment with the door, but he got it open and walked inside, surprisingly still in the form of a man. He raised his hands, to show he meant no harm. At least, not yet. He still didn’t entirely believe that this man was a werewolf. 

“Do you know why I am here?”