Amber continued her silent vigil.
“There are people that could possibly hurt you over this information.” Riley’s worry was quickly turning to frustrated anger. “And I need you to tell me the truth before they find out.”
“You’re starting to scare me.”
“Please, answer my question.”
Amber wet her lips. “It wasn’t the Truthseekers directly—at least not all of the group. They’ve recently acquired a financial backer who claims to have the same goals—to take Trusics down. Since then, the group has been more proactive in their approach. But don’t ask me why Kenner Dunbar got involved with them. The first time I met him was at dinner with you; I didn’t know him before and haven’t talked to him since.”
“Kenner Dunbar?” Riley repeated the information in disbelief. “As in Clay & Dunbar?”
Amber nodded.
Riley thought over the situation. Kenner knew what he was doing, who he was getting involved with, and what beehive he was poking at. Amber and the rest of the Truthseekers, or the bloggers, or the hackers, or whatever they were, didn’t.
“We’re really over now, aren’t we?”
“Yeah.” She discovered that she wasn’t angry with Amber or even sad about this second betrayal—just disappointed. She suspected her mounting feelings for Morgan were responsible for that.
Reaching into her purse, Riley pulled out her wallet. She pulled out every bill that she had. It didn’t amount to much, but it was enough to buy her time until the bank opened in the morning. She tossed the money onto the kitchen table.
Amber’s brow furrowed. “What’s this for?”
“Pack your bags and get out of town for a while.”
“I’m supposed to work at the café tomorrow,” Amber protested.
“Amber, this is your life. You have no idea what you’ve gotten yourself into. Wait until this storm blows over if you want to come back. I can wire you more money in the morning.”
Amber’s body stiffened. “I don’t want your money.”
“Don’t fight me on this.”
As she walked out to her car, Riley pulled her phone out of her pocket. She debated on calling this new information in or not. If Kenner Dunbar was behind this, Trusics wouldn’t take kindly to the news. She didn’t know to what lengths her company would go, but they had a department full of employees with weapons that were not props in an elaborate roleplay; these people were ready to preserve the company’s existence.
Her fingers found Josh’s name in her contact list and she called. “Any leads yet?”
“They’re still working on it. But I was able to gain access to the reserve room logs.” He sighed heavily with the burden of knowledge. “It looks like an inside job, Riley. There’s no sign of a break-in. Whoever did this, they had clearance to that room.”
“Couldn’t anyone use a code though?” Riley proposed as she unlocked her car and slid into the driver’s seat. “Someone could steal that.”
“Sure, but stealing that, as well as Niall Price’s fingerprints and retinal scans?” He blew out another long breath. “This is insane. What can of worms have you opened up, Riles?”
“I’m sorry.” Riley stared out her car window at Amber’s house. The front of the house was still dark as were the upstairs windows. She could have stayed and packed Amber’s bags for her and driven her out of town herself to keep her safe, but Amber was on her own now. She could only hope that she took the warning words seriously.
“No, no. This is pretty cool.” He laughed. “It’s like I’m a CIA agent or something.”
“I’m glad you find this amusing. Remind me to buy you a beer after this is over.” She took a moment to absorb the new information. “We’ll let the company deal with Niall. But text me a heads up if you hear anything new about this.”
Whatever Niall Price was doing with a year’s supply of energy was the least of her concerns for the moment. If he wanted to screw the company over, that would be Trusics’s problem.
• • •
Christmas Day was turning out to be the longest day of the year. Riley drove away from Amber’s home with her in-car navigation system programmed to the offices of Clay & Dunbar. She had no loyalty to the rival company, especially now that she knew Kenner Dunbar had been fiscally supporting the Truthseekers and the cyber attack, but she had always had a soft spot for Darren Clay. After his discretion about seeing her at the Red Sea Tavern and the subsequent extracted energy care-package, she felt an obligation to at least warn him what Kenner had been up to; Darren himself might have been involved in trying to take down Trusics, but if not, she didn’t want him to be an innocent casualty in a cubare war if she could help it.
The navigational voice chimed as she approached the onramp to the highway, a robotic reminder which resurfaced the fear of being watched by her employer. It was a nagging alarm that set off in her head. If Trusics could track her by way of watch, their company vehicles would be no different.
Her eyes darted around the surrounding neighborhood and she jerked the car away from the shoulder of the road to pull into a fast-food parking lot. A warning message appeared on the dashboard alerting her to the automated rerouting.
“Please, be quiet,” Riley grumbled as the voice of the GPS continued to navigate her in a calm manner that grated on her nerves. The car idled as her fingers moved across the touchscreen to delete her destination.
Riley unfastened her seatbelt and climbed out from the confines of the company vehicle. She closed her eyes and pinched the bridge of her nose. The luxury of time was not on her side. Trusics would discover who was behind the web attack and punish those responsible. She breathed out deeply to collect her thoughts and emotions. There were a number of people she could call to get a ride, but only one who wouldn’t try to divert her from confronting Clay & Dunbar.
She pulled out her phone and found the number in her contacts. “Henry?”
“Yes, Miss Riley?” her go-to taxi man answered.
“I need a ride.”
It was about fifteen minutes later before Henry’s black Lincoln Town Car pulled up behind her vehicle. It felt longer than that to Riley, however, as she stared down each minute that passed on her phone. She jumped into the backseat of Henry’s taxi before the vehicle even pulled to a complete stop.
“Miss Riley, it’s been too long.” Henry smiled at her via the rearview mirror. “Car problems again?”
Riley glanced out the window at the abandoned Jaguar. “Yeah. Something like that.”
“Where to tonight? A cubare club or one of the human ones you like?”
“Not a club.” Riley looked out the rear window at the lights of passing traffic. Henry was a responsible driver, always careful with his cargo, but right now she needed him to be like every other taxi driver she’d ever encountered. “I need you take me to the Clay & Dunbar office.”
Henry put on his blinker and pulled out into the street. “Which one? The one near Trusics or the warehouse?”
“Warehouse? When did they get a second office?”
Henry’s eyes were focused on the road ahead, but he flicked his eyes to the rearview mirror periodically. “I don’t know if it’s Mr. Dunbar’s property, but I’ve taken him there more than a few times in the last month.”
Riley tugged her bottom lip between her teeth. “I don’t know which one to go to.”
“May I suggest the warehouse then? The main building has been a ghost town for the last month.”
“What are you talking about?”
Riley could see Henry’s bushy eyebrows raise in the rearview mirror. “You didn’t hear? Rumor among the cubare is that the Clay & Dunbar partnership dissolved.”
• • •
Riley stared out the taxi window at a darkened brick building in a less than savory part of the city. “You brought Kenner Dunbar here?” Street lighting was sparse, but Riley could make out the chain-link fence that surrounded the building and a nearly vacant parking lot. The building
in the center, which looked to be four or five stories high, had been a former feed and seed warehouse if the painted signage on the brick spoke true. No light came from the bottom three levels, but a pale yellow glow emitted from the fourth floor.
Henry turned around in his seat. “Not exactly his scene, am I right?”
Riley nodded and continued to gaze out the window. She trusted Henry. He was cubare, like herself, but an independent who relied on his taxi services to pay the bills. He had no direct affiliation with either Trusics or C&D beyond providing car services to several cubare employed at each company.
She felt for the door handle.
“Do you want me to wait for you?” Henry offered. Riley knew it was a struggle for him not to pry into why she had asked to be taken here this night.
If Kenner or Darren were inside, this wouldn’t take long. “Wait twenty minutes,” she said. “If I don’t come out, I need you to call my friend Josh and tell him where you dropped me off. Can you do that for me, Henry?” She scribbled down Josh’s cell number on a piece of paper and handed it over.
The taxi-driver nodded solemnly. “Of course, Miss Riley.”
Riley used her cell phone as a flashlight to check the metal fences that closed off the perimeter of the nondescript LA building. She was athletic enough to scale the eight or nine foot security fence but looked for a weakness in the fence to exploit. She found what she was looking for near the gated entrance. A thick chain connected to a padlock secured the sliding entrance, but she was just thin enough to squeeze through a gap between the fence and the gate.
She crept toward the main building, wincing at the sound of gravel beneath her rubber-soled shoes, senses heightened and on-guard for security or vicious watch dogs. She reached a door without detection. The door swung free, unlocked, and Riley found herself in a darkened stairwell. She quietly closed the heavy metal door behind her and checked the first door she saw; it was locked. A noise from the upper level caught her attention, and she began the ascent to the higher floors where she hoped to find who she sought.
Kenner Dunbar’s distinct voice urged his accomplices to keep up the good work. Riley stood outside in the stairwell, her palms flat against the cold metal. She sucked in a deep breath and pushed open the door.
The metal hinges protested, calling attention to her entrance.
“Carter?”
The older Dunbar brother stood in the center of a large room that seemed to encompass the entirety of the fourth floor. A dozen people, human or cubare, Riley didn’t know, stared at computer screens and typed furiously.
“Kenner, you have to stop this,” Riley announced.
“The only thing I have to do is avenge my brother.”
“What does Liam have to do with poisoning Trusics?” Riley demanded. “If the Trusics database is lost forever, do you know how many cubare you’re taking down as well?”
“It’s your own fault for aligning yourself with a monster. They fucked with the wrong family.”
“You honestly think they had something to do with the attack on Liam?”
“I don’t think Trusics is responsible for Liam,” Kenner corrected. He slammed his fist onto the surface of a nearby desk. The loud noise made a few of the people in the room flinch. If the splitting wood beneath his skin had hurt, he showed no indication of it. “I know.”
There was certainty in his voice, and Riley knew he meant every word of it. She remembered the night she found the younger Dunbar outside the Red Sea Tavern. His eyes had been swollen from the brutal beating, and his clothing had been covered in layered shades of red stains. The incubus had been teetering on the edge of death as his body erupted into blood spluttering coughs. She could remember the words he’d spoken to her clearly: “Fucking Trusics bitches.” Riley hadn’t thought much of the insult at the time. She’d been too invested in saving his life to care if he’d felt the need to call her names.
But the puzzle pieces were starting to come together. Liam hadn’t meant it as an insult; he’d been disclosing who was behind the attack. “And you’re sure?”
“I’m betting my life on it.” Kenner’s voice returned to a calm as his eyes found hers. “You have to understand that Trusics is a business. Their sole mission is to preserve their way of life, and any threat to that plan won’t be ignored. It’s not what it was decades ago.”
“That’s every business though.”
“But not every business harasses their competitor in all aspect of their lives.” Kenner folded his arms. “Think back to the past few years. Why do you think Liam craved so much public attention? He surrounded himself with others, cubare and human, because it gave him a false sense of security. Trusics wouldn’t risk attacking someone constantly in the limelight.”
The cubare were often under constant surveillance by the Custodes, but they were mortal so their members cycled in and out. With the exception of the more aggressive venators, the cubare had nothing to fear from them. But to have an omnipresent force like Trusics as an enemy, it all sounded like a nightmare. She knew how aggressive her kind could be; immortality brought out the worst in some people.
Kenner ran a hand over his heavily gelled hair. “We’ve had a target on our back ever since we received funding. I guess the powers that be deemed us a threat.”
“So this is why you’ve been backing the Truthseekers?” She gestured towards the room of still-focused individuals, still typing at their respective computers. “And why C&D dissolved? Darren didn’t want anything to do with this vendetta.”
Kenner nodded at the mention of his friend’s name. “I respect his decision though. He and the others will be better off this way.” His softened features faded as he observed the room.
“It’s not too late …” Riley feebly started.
A chilling grin crossed his lips, and he chuckled. “It’s amazing. All I had to do was enlist my Truthseeker friends to rip out the giant’s Achilles’ heel. You have no idea how rewarding it’s been to watch Trusics bleed out.” He grabbed a rocks glass from his desk and took a sip of the golden liquid. Even in the bleakest moments, Kenner’s smile was disarming. “But don’t worry about your job. Trusics is like the Hydra, and I’m merely cutting off one of many heads.”
“Kenner,” Riley pleaded. “If I was able to figure out that you were behind this, it’s only a matter of time before they find out. You can still stop this.”
“I have nothing left to lose. I have no company. No money. No, no brother,” he choked out. He poured the last of the liquid down his throat.
“You might believe that, but what about your people?” Riley glanced at the room. “Do they know what they signed up for?”
Kenner didn’t answer. Instead, he calmly stalked to the seat behind his desk. The impressive furniture piece looked fit for an upscale downtown office, not an outdated warehouse. Riley watched as his eyes scanned the three large monitors that were mounted to his desk. She moved closer to get a better view. Each display had a number of screens opened, but one monitor was dedicated to a real-time video feed of the building, both inside and outside.
“You’re monitoring all of this?” Her eyes darted to the directions of where the cameras would have been angled.
“It’s our surveillance system,” he admitted. “This place might not look like the Four Seasons, but it still has a lot of expensive equipment in it.”
The computer screen monitoring the building’s exterior alerted them to a caravan of unmarked vans. The vehicles entered the lot and split into different directions. “Well, that didn’t take long,” Kenner murmured.
“What is it?”
“We spoke of the devil, and he sent his minions.” A peculiar smile crossed his lips. “I should have known. The beast always finds a way to grow another limb.”
Riley leaned closer to the monitor. She couldn’t see Henry’s parked car; instead, three passenger vans circled the property. Side doors slid open when the vehicles stopped, and dark figures poured outside.
&
nbsp; “You need to go,” Kenner said gravely. “They’ll have this place surrounded soon. You’ll need to phase into the realm to evade their detection. I’ll delete the video footage from the last hour so your employer won’t know you were here.”
“I can’t.” She fiddled with the watch on her wrist. “That stunt you pulled took down the database. I can’t access any marks.”
Heavy footsteps pounded up the stairwell. A voice rang loud and clear as someone barked orders. The members of the unidentified convoy weren’t trying hard to be discreet if they were trying at all. She could hear them break in doors on the lower levels.
Shock passed over Kenner’s features. “You’re completely reliant on the database?” he revealed his surprise. “You don’t have a human you can …”
The footsteps grew louder as the Trusics response team stomped closer. Riley couldn’t think rationally under the pressure.
Kenner grabbed her forearm and tugged her across the room. “Here,” he grunted. He opened a door that Riley hadn’t noticed before. Inside was an assortment of office supplies, a rack of electronic equipment, and spools of wires that ran into the walls. “It’s hot in here, but it’ll buy you time. Don’t touch anything. I’ll delete the surveillance recording from my desk.”
“Not a closet,” she murmured, almost to herself.
Kenner fished a set of keys out of his pocket. “Hide.” Twin hands shoved at her shoulders, and Riley stumbled inside. She grabbed the handle and found it locked behind her. “My payment for you finding my brother can only be borrowed time,” Kenner said through the closed door. “I suggest you use it and think hard, Riley.” His steps away from the door sounded quick in pace. “We’ve got company.”
Riley turned her attention to the only glow of light in the room. It was a small monitor that mirrored the surveillance feed that was at Kenner’s desk. The only difference was the size of the display. The same four image blocks on the screen flickered to another set of four videos. There were a total of eight cameras recording the premises. Kenner was right; there was no way out of the building without being seen.
Drained: The Lucid Page 33