“I know someone we can trust, and that would leave us only one short.”
James looked at Will. “Who?”
“Agent Roche. We interviewed that agent today, the one who placed that BS call about the results.”
“And?” Apparently that agent wasn’t a member of RP, so why had he done it?
“He was paid ten thousand Euros by someone who approached him on the street. He didn’t see the harm in it, so he did it. Roche has fired him, and he’s banned from entering their premises. Since he has a good record with the PIB and it was a misdemeanour crime, they’ve cautioned him. I think Roche wanted to go easy on him and not create an enemy. He has a man watching him, just to make sure, though. One wrong step and he’ll be in jail.”
Imani’s brows rose. “Didn’t see the harm? Pfft. And ten thousand Euros. That’s one thing we can say about RP—they’re not cheap.”
“Apparently I’m worth it.” I shrugged.
Will frowned. “Lily, you’re worth millions. RP is totally cheap.” Beren gave him a thumbs up.
“Aw, thanks.” It was nice to be appreciated. Maybe I should add that to the list of things to destroy RP for: cheapskates, don’t value me enough.
James looked at Will. “Okay, well, contact Roche when we’re done here, see if he’s up for coming to our next meeting. We’re at the pointy end of things, as you’re about to find out. Lily’s magic was very kind to us in finding out what Mum knew and what was destroyed by someone at headquarters. I’m worried we’re going to have to deal with RP before we know who wanted everything covered up. Even though most of the files Mum created weren’t destroyed until Dana started with the PIB, someone else made sure no one else continued with the investigation after Mum and Dad disappeared. Our chief suspect is Dana’s dad, who worked at the PIB. He left before Dana started, but I don’t know if he had enough sway with anyone to call off the investigation Mum had started. None of her documents mention Regula Pythonissam by name, but we’ve found records of the PIB buying weapons from Toussaint. There are bank statements and shipment details. So he definitely has ties to our organisation. There was another investigation into people trafficking that Mum had started a report on, but then she made notes saying the PIB had called her off that and said it wasn’t important enough.”
My eyes widened. “Not important enough? What the hell?”
James continued, “At the time, there were tensions with Russia and North Korea. I think a lot of their energy was going into that, and also into the usual witch crimes. It was a busy decade, apparently. In any case, we’ve found more information on Mont Saint-Michel, which confirms our parents were on the trail of stolen goods. They never actually found them, but they suspected they were there.”
I looked at Will. “You’ll be interested to know who RP stole that stuff from.”
“Oh, who?”
“The people they enslaved. They didn’t just enslave the people who worked for them, but their families too. There are thousands of families who do the bidding of RP—work for reduced wages or cover up crimes. Some of the victims are police, judges, doctors. RP’s reach is wide, and they hold sway mainly over non-witches. Mum thought they were being coerced as well as threatened. Their network stretches across Europe, but the main players are Toussaint, Dana’s dad, and that German woman, Katrin Brandt. That’s how they make all their money—cheap labour, but it gets worse.”
Beren leaned forward. “Worse? How can it get worse?”
James and I looked at each other. What was coming was shocking and reinforced the cruel nature of the witches we were up against. “I’ll let you take this one, brother of mine.” Yeah, there was no way I wanted to talk about it. My stomach curled in on itself, just thinking about it. I’d be lucky if I didn’t cry when James communicated what we’d learned earlier today. And to think that my parents were the only ones who were truly fighting against this evil. They never stood a chance without the PIB’s help.
James put on his poker face. Maybe he thought the less emotion he showed, the easier it would be to take. I didn’t think anything could soften the blow of this. “All three of the RP leaders own large swathes of property in many European countries. They run hunting holidays on their properties for witches, but while they’re there, they don’t use magic to hunt. It’s all about using non-witch technology… so guns and tracking by skill.” Everyone stared at James, horror dawning. They knew what was coming. It was so quiet and difficult to breathe; it was as if there was no atmosphere left. “They hunt people—non-witches.”
Liv slammed her hand on her mouth and gagged. Beren’s mouth fell open, and Imani’s face hardened, as if she were a statue. Will’s teeth ground together, and his jaw muscles bulged, while Millicent just sat, dazed.
Robert’s stoic expression gave the impression that he’d seen worse, and as a member of the armed forces, he likely had. “We suspected this, years ago. But we could never prove it, and the PIB didn’t want to give the witches in the government forces much help. They didn’t trust us. The PIB is an organisation unto itself at times. We had reason to believe there was a powerful group that were non-witch haters, for want of a better term. They believe witches are far superior and are working for a day when everything is out in the open and non-witches are our slaves. It seems we’ve found that group.”
“Are you okay, Liv?” She did not look well.
She hugged her stomach and shook her head. “How close are they to their objective?” No one answered. Everything had ramped up lately, and maybe it wasn’t just because we were closing in on them. Maybe they were attaining a level of organisation and reach where they were close to acting in a big way. “Please don’t let them win. Please.”
Beren pulled her in for a hug. “I’ll never let anything happen to you or your parents. All of us are going to work together to stop them. You have my promise on that.”
“You have my promise too,” said Imani.
“And mine,” I chimed in.
Everyone else nodded or said, “Aye.” And that was that.
Even though I’d been the one to discover the horrific news, James hadn’t told me how he planned to deal with it. “How are we going to stop them?”
“This is where it gets tricky.” My brother was the king of understatements. He had learned from the best though. And where was Angelica? I had a feeling we were going to need her when this all went down. “Even though we have proof because of Lily’s talent, we can’t use it in court or to get arrest warrants. If we do this, we’re going rogue. All of us.” He eyeballed each person at the table, one by one. “I can’t guarantee we’ll all survive, and that if we do, that we won’t be arrested at the end of it. I need you to each reaffirm you’re in this. If you’re not, it’s fine. We’ll excuse you now—you’ll still be bound by your oaths to protect our secrets, but you can walk away before it gets ugly.”
Imani slowly stood and lifted her chin to gaze down at everyone with intensity. “I am here till the end. I’ve vowed to give my life to Lily and this cause if I have to, and I stand by that as much today as I did the day that I made that oath.” I gave her a smile of thanks. I hoped she could see the love in my gaze. My friends were the best, the bravest.
One by one, everyone agreed they were in.
If I got any of them killed, I’d never forgive myself. But we had to get this done. I didn’t bother hiding my relief when Cardinal, the last person to swear, sat after declaring his allegiance. I cleared my throat. “Um, I have one more thing to say… about the other reason this is urgent and we need to take this to them rather than wait. My mother had a list, something that was also destroyed. There was an address of a lodge in Germany where many rich and prominent witches hunted. She had a list of guest names. Among them were politicians, actors, even royalty. They might not all have hunted non-witches, but they are of the same mind—witches are superior, and our time ruling over the non-witches is coming. We need to stop this now, and even then, we may be too late to beat them.”
“That is truly depressing,” said Liv.
Will rubbed his chin. “This is truly huge. We’re going to need other agents on hand to arrest some of these people. We can’t have them running away or trying to keep the group going.”
I gave him an “are you kidding” look. “Where are we supposed to get enough agents for that? People we trust who’ll believe us?”
Will looked at James. “It’s time to get serious. You and I need to get to the Paris agency. We’ll weed out the dishonest ones or anyone with an affiliation to RP. No one can lie to you. Once we have our squad, they can help. We’ll talk to Roche. He has closer ties to the Italian and German offices. We can figure out if we can use some of them too.”
“All the while hiding it from Chad?” James raised a brow.
Will shrugged. “He was put there because he’s incompetent. I don’t think he’s going to discover anything now.”
Agent Fairweather put up her hand. “If I may speak?”
James smiled. “Of course.”
“There are four agents I trust implicitly at headquarters. If I can get them to you for an interview, would you be willing?”
“If you can get them to agree to a silence spell regarding the interview and that you even took them to speak to us, yes.”
She nodded. “I’m pretty sure I can make it happen. I’ll have them ready for you for tomorrow morning.”
James looked at Millicent. “It’s your and Liv’s job to make a list of addresses for these actors and politicians. Unfortunately, I don’t think we can update that list of who’s visited lately without surveillance of these properties. What we might want to do is check out their close associates for any suspicious activity. I know it’s a long shot, but we need to scoop as many of them up as possible, send a strong message that this behaviour won’t be tolerated.”
“Where are we going to put them all when they’re arrested?” asked Imani.
I cocked my head to the side. “Won’t they just die anyway?”
“I have no idea,” said James. “These are people in the upper echelons of the organisation, or at least respected members. Anyone else we’ve arrested were employees, for want of a better word. Maybe they all have to swear a death oath, and maybe they don’t. I’m willing to take that chance, though. If they die, at least it will thin their ranks.”
My brother was harder than I thought, but in this case, it made me proud rather than horrified. None of us were the same people we were a year ago—especially me. Unfortunately, by the time this was over, we’d all be even more changed, and maybe not for the better. But none of that mattered if we didn’t survive it. So that was my priority—do whatever it took to survive and make sure those I loved did too.
I put up my hand. James gave a nod. “Yes, Lily?”
“I was just thinking. I know it’s dangerous, but what isn’t for us these days? Why don’t we wear disguises and visit each of the hunting lodges we know about? I could take some photos of the past, and we can match those faces to ones in the PIB database or to online photos. Most people, especially rich or famous people, have some kind of social-media profile or make the news at some point. We can use facial-recognition software or magic to figure out who they are.”
Imani nodded. Her face contorted into a “that’s a great idea” expression. “I like it. Will and I can go with you. Some wigs and sunglasses should make us unrecognisable, even if we’re caught on video.”
Beren shook his head. “But some of those places are off the beaten track. Anyone going there to take photos is going to look suss.”
This was our best chance to figure out who some of these people were—the fewer who got away, the better. We could tidy up the stragglers later, anyone we didn’t get in the first round, but the more we got rid of in the first instance, the less likely the group was to return. Not to mention that many of them would probably go underground when they found out what was going on. “But if we’re in and out quickly, what does it matter? They’ll wonder what’s going on, but they won’t know, and if we strike in the next few days, they’ll never figure it out. Who knows, they might even wonder enough that it becomes a distraction.”
Beren wasn’t giving up that easily. “Yes, but what if they tighten security and back off everything they’re doing until things quieten down?”
Hmm, he had me there. “We can go at night, when it’s dark. That would give Will a chance to tamper with any video cameras pointed at the outside. I don’t need light to get my pictures. It’s whatever was there in the past.”
Agent Fairweather smiled. “That is such an incredible talent. Your parents would have been so proud of both of you. You’ve both become everything they could have wished for. Such wonderful humans.”
Tears in my eyes and a smile on my face, I felt like a rainy day with a rainbow. “Thank you. That means a lot.” I didn’t often stop to wonder what my parents would think of James and me if they’d still been here. But, yes, I did think they would’ve been proud, and that gave me an expanding warmth in my chest.
James smiled, and his voice was gruff. “Thank you.” He turned to me. “I think your idea is a good one. You, Will, and Imani get all the information you need from Millicent, and plan one night to get to all the places. Hopefully there aren’t too many.”
Imani turned to me and grinned. “We got this.”
“We totally do.” It felt good to be doing something, even if fear niggled in my stomach. I embraced it. It was good to be scared, to be wary. It would give us the edge we needed to get in and out safely. Fear wasn’t a self-defence mechanism for nothing. Get cocky, and that’s when it all came undone.
James turned to Cardinal. “We’re looking for the optimal time to strike. Can you concentrate on the three heads of RP, find out when and where they’re meeting next? That’s when we’ll hit them.”
Cardinal nodded, determination in his gaze. “You got it. I’m taking leave from my job for the next few days so I’m free to work on this.”
James smiled. “Thanks, mate. You’re helping to save the world.”
Cardinal grinned. “And what could be a nobler cause than that?”
Nothing. Absolutely nothing.
Chapter 17
The next day, I hung out at home, inflicted with all the nerves. I did my own HIIT workout to burn some of it off. After thirty minutes of push-ups, burpees, sit-ups, mountain climbers, and squats, I was ready to die…. Oops, not die, die, but, you know, I needed a shower and a rest. Funny how some jokes weren’t as funny anymore. With a bit of luck, when this was all over, I could joke about dying after exercise. Goals.
Will and James were spending the day with Agent Roche. Hopefully they’d find enough agents we could trust. If they couldn’t, well, we still had to go ahead and hope for the best. Which wasn’t the most favourable plan, but we had no choice.
Not being able to watch TV or leave the house had me pacing and biting my fingernails. By the time Will got home at six forty-five, I had no nails left. I met him at the reception-room door because I happened to be pacing past. His face registered surprise. “Wow, that was quick. Were you waiting here for me?”
I laughed. “Almost. Waiting is the pits. I’ve been wandering around the house to pass the time. I watched the squirrels for a while. I asked Abby if she’d invite some in, but she didn’t feel like it and went to have a nap.” I rolled my eyes. “Cats can be so unreliable.”
He laughed. “They are their own bosses. That’s for sure.” Ted’s claws clicked on the timber floor as he trotted up to greet Will. Ted loved me, but Will was his favourite. I’d admit it hurt just a little bit, but I’d survive, and Abby did love me more, at least that’s what I told myself.
My stomach grumbled.
“Well, hello there. It must be time for dinner. Does your stomach always know what time it is?”
“Hmm, I don’t think so. It grumbles every couple of hours, just to make sure. Come on, I actually cooked the non-witch way in between pacing b
outs. Can’t you smell it?”
He sniffed. “Ooh, that smells good. What is it?”
“Traditional spaghetti and meatballs. It has lots of garlic, just in case we come across any vampires.” I winked. “Anyway, let’s eat, and you can tell me all about your day. You don’t seem too depressed, so I’m assuming things went as well as can be expected?”
His smile said it all, well, even the fact he was smiling said everything. We sat at the kitchen table and dished up our own plates. As I savoured the first bite of rich Italian deliciousness, Will started. “Roche took another oath. He wants in.”
“Yay!”
“Do you have to talk with your mouth full?”
“Yay isn’t really talking, is it?”
He narrowed his eyes. “I’m pretty sure it is.”
I shrugged, put more meatball in my mouth, and smiled. If he wasn’t careful, I’d chew it up and show him. Immature I knew, but if I were perfect, life would be boring.
“Right, so he’s on board, and we interviewed 80 percent of his agents. We also got the German PIB in on the action. It was a ridiculously long day.”
I swallowed the spaghetti I’d been chewing. I didn’t want to upset petal. “How many have you signed up?”
He grinned. “Way more than we could’ve hoped for. Fifty-eight agents have taken an oath to shut RP down and obey orders given by James or myself.”
My eyes widened. “Are you kidding?! That’s massive! Roche was happy to turn over control?”
“More than happy once we showed him all the proof. He was quite overawed by your photography talent, by the way. I think he’s going to have some work for you when this is all over. He has a few long-term unsolved murder cases he wants help with.”
Witch War in Westerham Page 16