Harlie nodded. “I know you’re not old enough to remember coming over, even I wasn’t born yet. But that was very much the way they felt when they arrived. Things were bad over there, far worse than they let be known to casual research. None of them will talk about it even now.”
“Even your mother?” Surratt folded his arms.
“Especially her,” Caradoc jumped in. “She doesn’t talk about that time—and neither will our father. But she did a bit when we were kids.”
“She is hiding something. But to find out would mean exposing us to her powers, even I don’t want that.” Harlie frowned.
Aisling shuddered. “I really don’t want that. Okay, so you know what we know about the veil. What do you have?”
“We have a lead on Nix.” Garran tossed it out too lightly; he had something larger he was holding back.
Jones picked up the two photos from the middle of the table and held them facing the holograms. “So do we.”
“Ah, nice shots. Where?”
“Cardiff, Wales, a few days ago. Maeve desperately wants to hunt him down.”
“Well, she might need some help. We received information that he was in Cardiff. He was also spotted in London, Birmingham, and Stirling. And a possible, but not confirmed, sighting in Galway. All within a half-hour of each other.” Garran shared an image of all five sightings. Same face, different clothing, and various locations.
“No one could be in five places at once.” Caradoc stepped up closer to the images.
“He’s either changed what he is, or there are now more of him. Neither is a good option,” Surratt said.
“Were there any sightings of him before a few days ago?” Aisling looked at the faces carefully; they all had the same haircut, same cruel mouth, narrow eyes watching everything. Just different clothing.
“Nothing from my source.” Stella hadn’t pulled out her envelope of notes from Grundog, but she was willing to admit she brought the photos.
If Garran was surprised at her admission, he wasn’t showing it. “Nothing that we’ve found either. It’s as if he just popped out of nowhere—all over. We have every agency we can keeping an eye out. His stomping ground was the U.K., but there could be more of him elsewhere.”
Maeve looked ready to be sick. “There are five of him? Maybe more? Is this a trick?” She had gotten to her feet but now slid back into her chair.
Stella left and came back with a pot of tea and a single cup which she sat in front of Maeve. Maeve drank without noticing.
“This has to be a trick. Maybe he didn’t get pulled past the veil and has been hiding, just waiting to pull this off.” Aisling wasn’t sure if she believed it herself.
“Really?” Caradoc shook his head. “How is appearing as multiple people going to help him? Not to mention that he had to risk being seen to pull this off.”
“He’s in cred recovery.” Stella studied the images. “Criminals live and die on their cred and his failed attempt to destroy L.A. and take over the Celtic gangs cost him a lot.”
“This is just to freak people out? We’re back to thinking it’s some sort of trick.” Caradoc seemed happy with that, but Harlie didn’t look like he was.
“I don’t know.” He reached over and patted Maeve’s hand. “This may upset you, and I am sorry. But there is a chance that something happened to him when he was beyond the veil. They are all the same being; I can feel that on a level beyond normal ken. But it might not be Nix.”
“We can’t do anything at this point but gather information.” Garran rubbed the back of his neck. “And that’s all I have right now. We can send more detailed information about the sightings once it comes in. Will you be working here?”
Harlie glanced around the well-stocked room, then shook his head. “No. We’ll need to move to Caradoc’s house. I’ll gather a list of what we’ll need.”
Garran and Surratt nodded and the holograms blinked out.
“You don’t want them looking over your shoulder, do you?” Caradoc was already pawing through Reece’s collection of portable-sized tech.
“Neither do you,” Reece said. “Not that I blame you. Is there anything else you need? There might be a pen or two you missed.” He added as the collection on the table grew larger.
“Just so I know whether to have a full breakdown, do we have multiple Nixes, or not?” Maeve went to pour another cup of tea, but the pot was empty. Stella darted out of the room and came back with a fresh pot.
Aisling had had Stella’s tea before. She loved strong tea and often made pu erh—an aged and very strong Chinese black tea—Maeve would be awake for a day or two at the rate she was drinking.
Caradoc stopped his pillaging and came next to her. “That’s what we’re going to find out. I promise we’ll get answers about him.”
“And the veil. We need to...make sure Nix isn’t replicating further.” Harlie caught Caradoc’s look midway through his comment. He flashed Maeve a grin, but she was staring into her teacup.
“Wait, this could be ongoing?” Maeve’s voice went into the dog whistle range.
Caradoc winced. “That’s what we’re going to make sure doesn’t happen. Right Harlie? Reece? Aisling?”
Caradoc looked at a loss to help Maeve, but he was trying. Aisling smiled. Maeve had a crush on Caradoc since Aisling first introduced them, but life made it impossible to pursue. From the flustered look on Caradoc’s face, he might share the feeling.
“Right now, let’s just get you all relocated to Caradoc’s place.” Reece waved to the diminished wall of tech. “Take what you need and give Jones a list of what else you want him to get. He’s on better terms with our bosses than I am right now.”
Chapter Ten
The move back to Caradoc’s house took longer than expected; in part because Stella had to keep casting a spell on the diners every time a load went out.
“You guys need to consider a back door to the place.” Caradoc moved the final load into his car. They’d made it all fit, but Reece was going to have to give Maeve and Aisling a ride home. Along with dropping Mott off at his place.
“That would endanger the protection the place offers.” Reece looked at the diner front. “But I have thought about it. If things would settle down long enough for luxuries like remodels.”
Caradoc grunted, then got in his car and took off. Even though they’d packed everything extremely well, he drove away like a five-hundred-year-old gnome out on his first drive in eighty years. Harlie gave a nod to everyone and took off on his motorcycle.
“Can I stay and help?” Mott had been silent during the conversations and the move. He’d helped carry out what was handed to him, but he was clearly thinking of things far from where they were. “I might have worked out a way to track things that crossed through the veil. And possibly people.” He gave a wincing smile to Maeve.
“It’s okay. I’ll just have a few more blokes to kill.” The smile Maeve gave him back was vicious and seriously caffeinated.
Jones walked with them to the end of the street then nodded. “I’ll go talk to the captain in person. This will take some work.” He held up his note screen with the items Harlie and Caradoc had requested. The list was long and wasn’t going to be easy to get. Even with almost clearing out Reece’s tech equipment, there were things on there that even Mott had never heard of.
Reece led them to his car. He was right, it was a very boring car, and was even painted an odd beige color that Aisling had never seen before.
Aisling slid into the passenger seat with Maeve and Mott climbing into the back. It was weird after being so pissed at him to be back sitting in a car with Reece. She waited until they were on the road. “I have something to tell you. We weren’t sure about telling you yet, but I asked Harlie before he left and he said you should know. There was a vallenian at your building crash.” She watched him closely, but he kept his eyes on the road. Too focused on the road. “You knew? How could you know? None of your people reacted to him at all.” That was
something she hadn’t thought of. Reece had been around three of the four prior sightings, even if he only saw them the last time. Maybe somehow he could pick them up.
“I didn’t see it.” Reece gave her a quick glance then went back to navigating the freeway onramp. “I felt something. I honestly couldn’t have told you what I felt, but there was an odd chill.”
“Displaced air?” Mott leaned forward from the back seat. “There is a theory that items from beyond the veil displace molecules when they cross to this plane. That’s what ties to my proposed tracking system. The theory isn’t well known, and quite old. It took me a while to hunt it down again, but it could be valid. Reece might have sensed that. We need to look at the camera footage again and see if he and it were near each other.”
Aisling looked back at Mott but didn’t know what to say. He had been searching in his own memories for an obscure theory that he might have read decades ago. The scary part was Aisling knew once they found it, it would be exactly as Mott said.
“It might be?” Reece shook his head. “I would have brushed it off as part of a messed-up day if you hadn’t told me you’d seen it. Did the vallenian attack the agents? None were seriously hurt, but it took a lot of force to push them back like that.”
Aisling still wasn’t up to admitting she’d been there too; besides, she knew he suspected it at this point. “Yes, or so it appeared. It waved toward them and everyone tumbled. It vanished right after that.”
“I’ll have Jones tell the captain to look for elven family boxes in the rubble. We can go over the footage again when we get to Caradoc’s place. If we give you a tracking pointer, you should be able to show us where the vallenian travelled.”
Aisling nodded and sat back. She doubted there was a box. This time the vallenian had been far more personal. She hoped that Harlie and Caradoc could figure out what the necklace was, and what it might do, before it did something nasty. Like strangle her in her sleep.
Reece slowed down as he went down the off-ramp, but still barely missed the sinkhole that appeared right in front of them. Aisling grabbed onto the dash as he swerved and hit his brakes. Maeve started swearing and Mott looked ready to be ill.
“Hold on.” Reece backed his car up and off to the side of the exit. The hole was massive, taking out the entire off-ramp and would have easily swallowed Reece’s car. He grabbed an old school police car radio from his dash. Maybe this car was a reconditioned cruiser. An extremely old one. He’d massively pissed off the powers that be to have them make him drive this thing. “We have a major sinkhole on the 17B off-ramp. Request emergency back up.” He nodded at the confirmation, then got out of his car.
Aisling and the others were right behind him. There wasn’t a lot of traffic, but Reece grabbed some orange traffic cones from the trunk of his car and set out warnings at the top of the off-ramp.
Aisling met him on his way back down. “Your own car had a secret Interpol connection; this one has an old cop radio and traffic cones. Bit of a change.”
He gave a crooked grin. “Yeah, that’ll teach me to open my big mouth.”
“We do appreciate it, and knowing that it might have been to protect us all helps as well. How have you been?” She’d known Reece for over a year, but he acted like an ass to keep her and the majority of her cops at bay while he looked for moles within the station. She’d only known the real Reece a short while. Trying to sort out her feelings for him was a mess, but there was no doubting that there was something there. Damn it, she gave herself a headache.
“I’ve been good.” He laughed. “Well, as long as I survive working with certain FBI agents anyway. And missing a particular stubborn elf.” He smiled.
“You guys might want to see this.” Maeve interrupted from where she and Mott stood at the edge of the sinkhole.
Sinkholes weren’t unheard of in Southern California, but they were usually associated with heavy rains. It had been bone dry for four months now.
Aisling slowly stepped as close to the edge as she dared. “Crap. Is that what I think it is?”
Reece followed and started a steady stream of swearing. “We’ll have to check, but yeah. That looks like part of our building.”
The mass of concrete, framing, and steel was wedged about ten feet down. Actually, the upper part was about ten feet—there was no way from this angle to see how far down it went.
This time Reece used his phone to call it in. “We found another anomaly. 17B off-ramp. Emergency crews already on their way.” He listened for a moment, then disconnected the call.
“We need to have the emergency crews officially shut down the off-ramp but keep them from the sinkhole.” He didn’t look happy.
“If chunks of buildings keep falling around town, people are going to notice eventually.” Aisling peered into the hole. It was horrifying and perversely fascinating. They hadn’t seen anything fall. One minute the road was clear, the next it had a massive hole in it. She mentally shoved aside what would have happened if Reece had been driving just a little faster.
“I know. But we have to try.” Reece walked back up the off-ramp toward the approaching fire engine and cop car.
“Is there any way we can get a building sample before the Area 42 people get here?” Aisling watched the street across from the sinkhole carefully. Most likely they’d come from there as the access would be easier.
Mott started hitting his chest, then finally reached into a vest pocket and pulled out a mechanical hummingbird. “Can’t get much, even less than what Stella grabbed. But something is better than nothing.” He appeared to pat the hummingbird, then released it. The bird flew down into the hole and came flying back with a bit of building. It got in three more rounds before Aisling spotted a trio of black SUVs heading down the cross street. Reg was right, there was a serious obsession with heavy-duty all black vehicles in the local law enforcement communities.
Mott pocketed the hummingbird and shoved the building rubble into his pants’ pockets.
“What are you doing here?” The dark-haired elf who approached on the other side of the sinkhole wasn’t rude, but he also wasn’t happy.
“Reece was giving us a ride home when that thing opened up on us.” Aisling folded her arms and did her best bored cop stare.
Maeve came up and echoed it, but hers had more of a snarl added. “It wasn’t something we did, mate. Back off.”
The elf studied them for a moment, went to the edge of the sinkhole, pondered that for a bit, and then went back to his car. The rest of the unsmiling Area 42 crew got out of their cars as well and multiple low-level discussions went on. Aisling didn’t recognize any of the agents.
The firemen used their engine to block the off-ramp, and it looked like the police car had gone back up on the freeway to head off traffic further down.
Reece came back down the ramp. “They’ll move so we can get back on the freeway, but first I want to see if we can help.” There was nothing in his voice that indicated the Area 42 people would let him get involved, let alone allow her, Maeve, or Mott, but Aisling knew he had to try.
Before he could talk to them, the fire engine moved over enough to let a small green car in, then it resumed temporary barricade duty. Whatever Reece had said to them was keeping the firemen up top, but Aisling knew that wouldn’t last.
Reece scowled when the car first appeared, then schooled his face back to neutral as it parked off to the side behind his own. A short male gnome got out and marched over.
“Good thing you didn’t dump your car in the pit.” His tone was less sarcastic than his words and he nodded to everyone on this side as he stomped up to the sinkhole. “Yup. Big old mess.” He shook his head and muttered to himself as he walked back and forth along the lip of the hole.
Aisling looked over to Reece, but he just gave a tight shake of his head.
“What are you doing over there? We’re supposed to be on this side. Actually, are you even supposed to be out here?” The tall elf with dark hair looked annoyed a
t the gnome, as did the other agents.
The gnome grinned. For a moment Aisling wondered if he was related to Garran. That was one of his grins, and it wasn’t a nice one.
“And it’s good to see you too, Rockquet. And your little friends. I was sent down here by New York HQ—they needed someone to keep an eye on all of you.” He rocked back on his heels, folded his arms, and smirked.
Rockquet didn’t say a thing but turned his back to make a call.
The gnome turned toward them with a real smile. “I know who that one is,” he nodded toward Reece. “Let me guess, Aisling Danaan, Mott Flowers, and Maeve Halithi. Nice to meet you folks. Read all about you.” He shook all of their hands. “I’m Agent Barthlinio Churchill. You can call me Bart.”
“I’ve heard of you.” Mott’s eyes narrowed and he tilted his head as he obviously searched that massive data bank of a brain to find the data on Bart. “Ha! You wrote a paper on veil transmutations and the aggregation of stray particles.”
Bart pulled back and his eyes widened. “Yes, I did. Fifty-three years ago, in an obscure science journal. I’m impressed.”
“We’re supposed to stay here too.” Rockquet called out after he finished his phone call. “They’re sending choppers with heavy grav lifts.”
Bart rolled his eyes then turned to the agents on the other side. “That’s wonderful. Did I say you couldn’t stay? I believe I said I was keeping an eye on you.” He shook his head and turned back to Aisling, Maeve, and Mott. “I am sorry that I didn’t get to meet either of your brothers, Detective Danaan. Like Mr. Flowers, they are renown in certain circles.”
Aisling wasn’t sure what to think of that. Yes, Caradoc was. He was an odd combination of eccentric billionaire inventor and social butterfly appearing on magazine covers. Unlike Caradoc, Harlie didn’t crank out scientific papers every month and his studies were less tech and more out-of-this-world.
“I’m sure they would have liked to meet you.” She had no idea what else to say. Reece was standing a bit behind and to the side of Bart with his arms folded but a neutral look to his face.
An Uncommon Truth of Dying (Broken Veil Book 2) Page 8