by P. S. Power
Wendell nodded then, his face pleased.
“That can be used. Especially if you can find out who’s behind this? There’s an investigation going on into the attacks, but other than the fact that Humans are involved, we don’t know much. No names or anything in particular as far as that kind of thing goes. The Line Walker and his Vampires are seeing to that?” The words were a bit strange, though Avery could kind of see the meaning behind them.
He was afraid that the Shifters were being kept out of the loop on purpose.
Avery spoke up then, feeling slightly embarrassed about talking to her betters. Even if she was starting to see that Shifters weren’t instantly superior to everyone else, that didn’t mean that Presidents and high leaders weren’t better than she was.
It had to be done though.
“No one has heard from any of them for a while now. What that means, I have no clue. Not really. I’ll suggest they report in, if I see anyone?”
No one relaxed due to that news, but they seemed to trust that she was being serious and honest. Lang moved in, her right hand touching Avery on the arm, just below the shoulder.
“Are you doing well, dear? Getting plenty to eat? Enough rest?” There was real concern, which was instantly reflected in the President’s eyes.
He spoke up then, his tone shifting as he watched her.
“Perhaps we should find some food? For that matter, is this investigation worth risking our line walker over?” He glanced at Lang, then Wendell, both of whom seemed ready to say that it really wasn’t.
Steve looked at the leaders of the Shifter Nation and shook his head a bit.
“People are dead. Innocent ones. We owe it to them to find out who did it and why. If we can, we need to bring those people to justice. It may not be possible. In that case… Well, then we need to make sure whoever did it can’t do it again.” The Human looked away then, his face going dark. What he was imagining wasn’t clear at all to Avery.
Jahn Samson took a deep breath then, tightening his lips.
“Understood. Shifters died in these attacks as well. Mages… Trollienkeine… Humans and Vampires. Still, we can do this without danger to anyone, if we’re careful. We should see to that.”
There was some wisdom to the words, Avery knew. It was also going to go very slowly, if they did it that way. Going by car to eighteen different crime scenes that were in four states wasn’t going to be easy. It was why Bey had hired her in the first place. Which reminded her of something.
“I have a job to do. I contracted with the Vampires on this. I don’t get out of it just because it’s a little dangerous. None of us do. The job of a mercenary is always to balance risk versus reward. Now, what should we do first?”
Avery wasn’t an investigator. None of them were, but the clever Human was the one who worked out the right idea first. After hearing the whole tale to that time.
“It’s not that hard. The FBI was part of the attack and trying to keep you all busy before that. Out of the way? It seems that the best place to start would be there. With Agent Borden.”
It took a bit to find the woman using the node, but not ten minutes and two shortcuts later, they were striding into the Albuquerque New Mexico FBI headquarters. Each of them ready to fight, if they had to.
Possibly even if it wasn’t strictly needed.
Chapter nineteen
It was interesting, seeing the faces of the men and women around them in the room as they approached the desk they needed. There was a front gate keeper, but Lars simply walked past the man there, following the scent of the person they wanted. After a few seconds they were there, standing next to a very scared seeming Agent Borden. The woman was in gray that day, with trousers on instead of a skirt. She was bruised still from the beating she’d taken a few days before. That was covered by makeup, but it wasn’t totally working for her.
“May I help you?” She seemed to understand who Lars was, if nothing else. After a moment she locked on to Avery as well. The others weren’t ignored, exactly, but the woman started for something in her desk, almost instantly.
Steve, their Human guide among these strange people, put his hand out to stop her.
“I wouldn’t bother. We have some questions about the investigation you were part of… With the Coalition of Nations? These are the people that have been assigned to take it over.”
The agent actually seemed to be fine with that part of things. It was demonstrated by her taking her hand off of the handgun she’d been going for. Avery was kind of impressed with Steve, having handled the situation so smoothly. She would have started fighting if it was pulled, but that was the only move she had to fall back on in a case like this.
Well, that and begging but she didn’t really think that kind of thing was going to go over very well with the group she had with her. For one thing, they could win a fight, in the room they were in. So far the Shifters and Vampires have done fairly well against the Human attackers. Not that it had been a real fight at any point yet. Just them responding to the aggression. That was different in a lot of ways.
The Agent blew air out, her cheeks going fat with the effort. Stalling for time to think up a lie, no doubt.
“I’ll need to check this all out with your various governments. Can I get your names?” She pulled a pad, pretending that going through things like that would be actually needed. Interestingly, Calley just smiled at the woman.
“Ambassador Calley Hale. Shifter Nation. Call them first? I think we can settle this in a few minutes.”
That worked. Especially once Lang started screaming at the FBI woman for being a problem.
Taking a few deep breaths, the heavyset lady managed to get her feet under her again, as soon as she hung up. Then she tried to do the same thing for everyone else there. That was solved with one more call, which ended up going to the Vampire Council directly.
Bey spoke to the woman himself. His voice was like ice, compared to what Avery had heard from him before. He was normally very polite and happy seeming. Even when stressed.
“Ah. Agent Borden. I believe you’re dealing with several people that are attached to us at this moment? Scott Laird, Steven York and Avery Rome? You know Miss Rome, of course. Also with the Shifter Nation? She rather saved your life the other day? Perhaps you recall that portion of the events? As did Lars of the Trollienkeine? I do hope that you’ll be of actual aid this time. We seek only to find the guilty party in the murders of various peoples. If that wasn’t you or your group, it would serve us all to find this out. All other things aside, that would be a good thing, I believe.”
The woman clearly wasn’t in love with the small Vampire leader. In fact, her frown grew enough that it seemed like she was going to harm her face, contorting it like she was doing. Then, the man had tried to kill her. Avery could see that making it pretty hard to like someone. Not that it mattered all that much. The clear message was that the people there were trusted to get the task done.
“I’m sure that they’ll be fine. I just wasn’t aware that the… People assigned to the investigation had changed. It’s a rather… colorful, group of people. Youthful as well. Are you certain they have the needed skills to be of aid in this?” She was speaking to Bey, but kept looking at Avery directly.
As if she were going to be the young one in the group.
Calley stared at the Human then, her face a bit less than perfectly polite.
“That doesn’t matter, if we find who’s guilty on this. Can you get us to the needed locations? Or provide a map, so we can do it ourselves?”
The woman made a face, but nodded.
“I have a map. You can have a copy of it? We’re all focused on other things right now. The attack the other day… That doesn’t make your people look good.”
Avery was baffled for a bit, but didn’t let ignorance of what the insane Human was saying stop her.
“You mean the attacks on us by your people? Those attacks?”
The woman made a face, her eyes n
arrowing.
“Nooo. I meant when the monsters tried to kill me for doing my job.”
Avery could kind of see that one, once she thought about it. It was trumped by the fact that a real war had started without provocation a few hours later, but to this woman, that might not have been the most important part of things.
“Ah. Well, let’s put that behind us? You did nearly start a war, by being rude to dignitaries. We brought fewer of those this time because of that. We need to focus on the task now, not on what might have happened if you had your way.”
It was a real enough thing to consider. For nearly the first time in her life, Avery kind of wanted to be able to read minds. The Human woman just struck her as being really untrustworthy for some reason. It could be simple fear, or even bigotry. That was kind of what she’d figured the problem was originally, the first day. That the woman was a bit troubled when it came to other groups.
Borden had even suggested that she’d been given the job of stalling the investigation. Then, later that day, they were attacked by government forces. Avery had been thinking that the one thing was related to the other, in that the killings of low powered, innocent beings could have been a test to train the combat teams. That kind of thing, at any rate. Start with people alone, in their sleep, or even mothers and children who couldn’t have fought back even if they’d known that an attack was coming.
She spoke out loud then, watching the Agent as intently as she could. That was a lot more significant now than it had been before her time in the void.
“Are you covering for someone? Is the… The set of first attacks… Those are the important part, aren’t they? For you, I mean. What your part in this was.”
The lie sprang out of the woman a half second before the words did. It was an ugly green color of light that flowed out of her mouth in a gushing motion. There were black hints in it that seemed bitter and dense on Avery’s tongue.
The Agent shook her head, looking tense suddenly.
“What? I… No, nothing like that.”
Except, of course, that it was a lot like that. Not perfectly. She couldn’t read minds, but she could taste the lies in the air and pick up bits of flavor to them. For instance, this part of things, what Agent Borden was trying to hide at that moment, involved kids. Younger people at any rate. Not little children though. Boys.
Her brain didn’t know what to make of the whole thing, but Lars turned to stare at the Agent then.
“You know of this? Tell us?” He was soft and gentle about it all.
His voice deep and commanding for all of that.
Avery looked at Calley, then Steve. Their Human. Their guide to these people.
“I… She’s covering something up. I can taste it. It involves boys. Not sex, though. I can’t see how it would fit.” She really didn’t.
After a moment the red headed man started to nod. That made his ponytail bob a bit. Then he stepped forward as the rest of the Humans in the room started to stand up, seeming upset by the questioning.
“Boys… Like college kids or toddlers? If it’s little kids then it would be about pedophiles, most likely. Older boys? Then it would probably be that the FBI or at least Agent Borden here is covering for someone. Some Senator’s kid and his frat or something?”
There was a sickening surge of green from the woman on the first part, about the Senator and his son. Not the frat portion however. The first bit was bitter tasting, but the second half was like water.
So not really there.
“A child of an important person? Not hers? That would give a bigger reaction, I think.”
Steve didn’t stop making things up, getting closer to the event after a few moments.
“A group of kids. A lot of them are the children of the rich and powerful, which the FBI is trying to hide? Was it linked to the attack the other night?” That seemed like it would make sense, but if it did, the Agent there didn’t know anything about it.
The world went blank on that part, at least as far as what she was thinking.
“The first bit. She doesn’t know about the bigger attack. Tell us about who these kids are, Agent Borden. They’re murderers. We need to stop them.” If they were related to very powerful people that would be hard, without simply hunting them down and killing them. It was clear the Humans were hiding them from the investigation and had been the whole time.
Using the liaison that the Federal Government had given them.
The Agent moved back, her face pale.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about. I’ve just been standing here, not speaking. Making things up won’t get to the bottom of this. Perhaps if we have you replaced with someone a bit more seasoned? The pressure of this must be getting to you.” Agent Borden sounded brittle about it all, but also incredibly false. Like she wanted everyone to believe her, but couldn’t be bothered to actually try to make that happen.
Calley smiled then.
“Ah. Well, I’m sure that some rest will help with that part. I’m certain that Avery didn’t mean anything, saying that. You said there was a map? We should go and check that out, don’t you think?”
There was a glare driven toward Avery, who lowered her eyes. It was clear that she’d looked in the wrong way. She wasn’t wrong, but truth wasn’t always about fact. Sometimes it was about belief. Her face felt warm, shame filling her. Stepping back carefully got most of the other FBI people to act like they didn’t really see her any longer. They peeked occasionally, but didn’t stare like they had been.
After getting the marked map paper, Calley grabbed her by the arm and pulled her from the space, looking angry. It wasn’t until they were out of the building totally that she let go. Then, without warning, the Bat hugged her.
“That was brilliant! We weren’t going to get more from her right there. The only thing would be the FBI trying to arrest us for some made up thing if we pushed just then. This is a real lead though! Now, we need to get to the sites of the attacks fast, before they track us down. We can move faster than they can, I think. We need to get…” She pointed at a red mark on the paper, a spot that was only about ten miles away.
Focusing on it, Avery nodded, then closed her eyes. There was a ripple, in the other direction that would get them into place much faster than trying to jog would.
“This way. Even if it does seem backwards. I’ll get us there. Come on.” She did run, not pushing too fast, so they wouldn’t lose Steve.
He kept up easily enough though. They all did including Lars, giant or not. The shortcuts took a while to navigate, but they were collecting data at the first site fifteen minutes later. Then the next five… Each having its own issue. Most of the time it was that the place was locked. One had flooded for some reason, washing away any scent trails or useful data.
They were doing it in order based on time, which meant that while they went to all the attack locations, only nine of them were useable at all for them. Avery got nothing, herself, but Lars managed pretty well. In fact, from two of the places he managed to find bits of material that smelled like one of the attackers. The same one for both samples. The trick then would be linking the things to the right person, who could be almost anyone.
Steve shook his head then, smiling.
“Not really. It has to be a male. Human too, right Lars?” He waited for the other man to sniff the tiny bits of material again.
“Yes. This is a Human. Not old either. A man, but youthful. No older than Steve here. Not him though. I’d be able to tell that. Not anyone I’ve ever met.”
The words got Steve to wave at the larger man.
“They also probably have to be the son of someone wealthy, powerful or both. Probably a person who has a lot of political power. Some local mayor isn’t going to have the pull to influence the FBI in a murder case. Really, almost no one does. The President might, but he has two daughters. The head of the FBI? I don’t know who that even is, but it could happen. Whoever is in charge of the DHS could do it, I guess… So
it’s no more than a few hundred people really. The problem is that we can’t just find everyone with enough power and have Lars sniff them. He’s a bit obvious.” Steve laughed a bit then, sounding grim. “No offense. I just can’t fit you easily in to my pocket.”
Avery thought for a bit, recalling what Steve himself had spoken on earlier.
“Scrying? I don’t know how that works, but…”
There was a slow nod then.
“Blood would work better, but a good Mage might be able to do that from those scraps. That will only give us map locations, if it works, but then we can get Lars there to see if he can trace them? That might take a while, but it’s kind of why we’re here, right?”
Scotty moved to clap the other man on the shoulder.
“Well, why you lot are here. I’m apparently just hanging out for my clever color commentary, so far.”
Calley laughed then as well.
“Ditto. Let’s get to Westfield? We might have to hire someone to do this, if we want the best.”
They rushed to the mall, since that was the only place any of them had Mage contacts they could find at short notice. Technically they could have gotten with Eric Weise, or even Maddy Morse, their highest leader, given the job at hand. Those people were going to be busy at the moment though. No one even dreamed that they wouldn’t be slammed to the gills. Steve put it that way, his language far more colorful than what Avery was used to.
They ended up going in through the back of the shop, using the node to get them all into place. Only to find that the local Ambassador, Lisa, had finally gotten to go home, leaving her staff there to hang on and answer the phones. One of the men, who wasn’t old at all, was actually sweeping the floor when they came in. There was a Mage lady behind the front desk off to the right, reading a magazine. Where the woman had gotten one of those, Avery didn’t know. It was the glossy kind that smelled of perfume. That made it hard to ignore.