“What happened to your neck?” I asked, verbal diarrhea pouring out of my mouth.
Nik leaned forward, planting his elbows on the table and, once again, curling his hands around the paper coffee cup. The corners of his mouth pulled up in a slow, purposeful grin, and his eyes locked with mine. “I have to say, Kitty Kat, I’m surprised it took you so long to ask.”
I waited for seconds, but it was clear that he wasn’t planning on saying more. “That’s it? That’s your non-answer?” I felt irrationally irritated that he hadn’t explained himself, despite knowing full well that he didn’t owe me any kind of an explanation. Despite knowing, full well, that I didn’t want an explanation. Not really. Whatever weird shit he was into, it was none of my business. My business was weird and shitty enough on its own.
Apparently, Nik agreed. “MYOB,” he said lazily.
I narrowed my eyes. “Just don’t let your ‘business’ screw up mine.”
Nik chuckled. “Wouldn’t dream of it.”
30
Plan & Action
“I think that’s it.” I was sitting across from Nik at the table in the shop’s back room, flipping through the pages of the dandelion planner, scanning the information I had on each member of the Kin. Well, on each of the members my mom had known anything about. “We’re ready … unless there’s anything else you think we need to add. Third time’s the charm?”
Nik shook his head. “It’d be a waste of time. Can’t really afford that, can we?”
He was right. I’d watched the interrogation videos once on my own and once more with him. Another time through would just be time wasted and opportunity lost. The videos were nearly four months old now; the more time we let pass, the less accurate my mom’s information would be. Soon, it would be completely obsolete. I couldn’t let that happen. She deserved better. And they deserved so very, very much worse.
I stared across the table at Nik. “I guess that means it’s time for action.” I just hoped he had some sort of a plan. I mean, he’d been around for pretty much ever; he had a little more experience with this kind of thing than me, especially if he consulted with his spiritual hitchhiker. Re had a little more experience with every kind of thing.
Unfortunately, my hopes proved faulty. Zippo from Nik.
“Well …” I leaned over the table, flipping through the planner’s pages until I reached the M’s. “Here’s what I’m thinking—Mari’s the person we have the most info on, obviously. So we go after her first. Cut off the head of the snake.”
I’d filled nearly four full pages, front and back, with information about Mei’s “daughter.” Mari took up eight times as much space in my little hunting book than anybody else. Most only had a line or two—their name, any distinctive physical features or personality traits my mom had relayed to Dom, and, of course, what sheut powers they were proficient in.
I tapped the first page of the Mari section in my hunting book. “I mean, she was clearly involved with the whole Apep-Carson situation. Hell, she probably killed Mei. And I bet she knows where all the others are. Plus, if we take her out, who’ll the others band around? We’ll be buying ourselves more time. She’s the most logical person to start with.” I sat back in my chair. “Except we have no clue what she can do with her sheut.”
“Which makes it a tad bit difficult to estimate how dangerous she is,” Nik said. “And, considering we still haven’t figured out which of them made the anti-At pocket watch …”
Taking a deep breath, I decided to just dive in, addressing the really damn scary elephant in the room. “We could just go into this believing her ‘special gift’ might be the ability to manipulate anti-At?” It was kind of like what Nik could do with solidified At, only a whole lot scarier, since one touch of obsidian-like anti-At could erase a Nejeret from the timeline completely. If it touched me, it would be like I’d never existed.
Nik nodded, very slowly. “But an assumption like that could be just as dangerous should it prove wrong. If you go after Mari believing she can manipulate anti-At and find out that she’s capable of doing something else, then you’ll be totally blindsided by whatever that other thing might be.”
I tilted my head back and forth, considering his point. It was a pretty damn good one. “Okay … so, I’d go after her being aware that she might be able to control anti-At, or she might be able to do any of a gazillion other things. How’s that sound?”
Nik was quiet for a moment. “That’s all assuming we can even track her down.”
I perked up. “We could try joining forces and see if we can find a stable portion of the At. Two bas and a ren working together … we might have a shot.”
Nik shook his head, frowning. “I’m afraid we will have to find another way.”
I exhaled heavily and slouched back in my chair. “Has the Council had any success in tracking down any of the Kin? Or are they still sitting on their thumbs?”
Nik’s lips quirked. “They’ve made precursory attempts, but they haven’t gotten anywhere yet.” He tapped his fingers on the table, thoughts swirling around behind those pale blue eyes. It pleased me when he spoke about the Council as the “other” to our “we.” I couldn’t have explained it if I’d sat down and tried, but I liked having Nik on my team. “What if we took a more human approach … searched for the Kin some way that the older Nejerets would never consider?”
I nodded to myself. Another good point. The older Nejerets, especially the millennia-old bodies on the Council, were used to relying on their Nejeret gifts, specifically the ability to enter the At and find people in the echoes. They had a really hard time moving on from the ways and traditions they were used to, even when those ways and traditions were duds, like the present, unstable At. Their adoption of new technological developments was downright sluggish. Change is hard. At least, that’s what they say.
But humans—they’re all about adopting the latest and greatest, newest and most effective technologies. They love finding ways to use technology to enhance their own natural abilities. And I was practically still one of them.
My hopes lifted. Just because the Council had been unsuccessful so far didn’t mean I would be, too. I just had to search in ways they hadn’t, consider things they never would. I had to think like a human.
I leaned forward, heartbeat picking up. “I have an idea. There’s someone we need to go see.”
***
I stared up at the face of a restored old four-story brick school building. It was on the edge of the Industrial District, the I-5 off-ramp curling around the building. No wonder it wasn’t a school anymore. Safeco and Century Link Field were visible behind the brick building, beyond the myriad of legs extending from the freeway. The school had been decommissioned decades ago—I looked it up on the bus ride here—and had been recently renovated and converted into an artist’s collective. A shallow yard, planted with sculptures rather than living things, filled the several dozen feet between the sidewalk and the front of the building.
Nik stood beside me on the sidewalk, hands in the pockets of his long, black leather coat. “You sure about this, Kitty Kat?”
We were there to see Garrett, a talented young hacker I’d gone to high school with. Garrett was … unique. He wasn’t really like anybody else I’d ever met. He had a way of getting away with things—things said, things done—that other people couldn’t. Things other people would earn a slap for saying or doing. Or a punch. Or a well-timed kick to the balls.
Chewing on my lip, I stared down at my phone, pulling up the text messaging app. I double-checked the text from my old high school friend, Gracie, and nodded. “This is where she said his workspace is.”
“But are you sure you want to do this?”
“I, um—” I shook my head, dispelling the doubts suddenly buzzing around me. “Yeah, of course. When we get in there, can you just hang out in the background? Garrett doesn’t really like guys, and if he thinks we’re in any way involved, like …” For whatever reason, I couldn’t bring
myself to say “dating.”
“Just tell him I’m your cousin.” Something in Nik’s expression made me want to slap him. He wore a strange mixture of disbelief and amusement, like he couldn’t believe I would ever consider the possibility that somebody would think we were involved.
“Fine. Let’s get this over with.” I marched up the path leading to the former school’s double doors, not bothering to look back to see if Nik was following me. At that moment, I really didn’t care.
After a quick check of the directory in the lobby, which still very much resembled the main office of a high school, Nik and I headed up to the third floor. According to the map beside the directory, Garrett had a corner studio overlooking Safeco Field and the Industrial District. Not the greatest view, in my opinion. But to each their own.
We headed up two flights of stairs, then down a hallway that displayed artwork on the walls and in large, built-in display cases, much like the school must’ve done decades ago. Except this artwork was not anything a school would’ve allowed. There was more anatomy displayed here than in a Playboy.
“Interesting place,” Nik said.
I glanced at him over my shoulder, and a laugh escaped from me in the form of a soft snort. “Tell me about it.”
“You like the arts. Maybe you should apply for a spot here.”
“Yeah … not really my style.”
Nik chuckled, and I frowned. He usually only laughed when he was making fun of me. Which then made me question—was he making fun of me? Had I missed something?
I exhaled heavily. It didn’t matter. “I think it’s that one down there,” I said pointing with my chin to a black door at the end of the hallway. “If you just want to wait out here, I’ll see if he can even help us.”
“You don’t think he can?”
We neared the door. A light glowed through the crack at the bottom of the door, bright neon green. “I hope he can. Garrett’s the only person I actually know who has real experience with the dark web and other crazy hacker stuff.” I shrugged. “He’s our best shot. And if he can’t help us, maybe he knows who can.”
“Alright.” Nik leaned his shoulder against the wall beside the door and crossed his arms. “I’ll be here if you need me.”
I flashed him a quick thank-you smile, then knocked on the door. “Garrett,” I called. “It’s Kat … from Garfield,” I added, sounding unsure about my own alma mater. “Gracie told me you were here. There’s something I need your help w—”
The door sprang open, and Garrett’s electric-blue hair was the first thing I saw. Of course he had blue hair. It was so Garrett.
He wasn’t handsome, exactly, but there was just something about him. A twinkle in his eye and a quirk of his mouth that spoke of mischievous things left unsaid. It was more his demeanor than his appearance that enabled him to get away with the borderline inappropriate things he said all too often.
As I stood there, facing him through the doorway, I felt my lips spread into a broad grin. I was genuinely happy to see him. I couldn’t believe I hadn’t sought him out earlier.
“Kat!” Garrett’s grin mirrored mine. “What—” He shook his head slowly. “What are you doing here?” His eyes slid past me, landing on Nik, and his smile wilted. “Who’s that?”
I shot a cursory glance over my shoulder. “My cousin.” I made a show of rolling my eyes and looking super disinterested. “He wanted to tag along.” I leaned in and whispered, “He’s always following me around …” Had he been human, Nik wouldn’t have been able to hear me. But Nik wasn’t human. Inside, I was giggling.
“Oh, yeah?” Garrett nodded enthusiastically. “Cool. Alright.”
He was a little bit taller than me, and when he leaned in to give me a quick hug, I didn’t feel overwhelmed by his presence. Nejerets were always big, it seemed. We were a secret race of people who were larger-than-life, often times physically, not to mention intellectually and reputation-wise. It had been a long time since I’d been around a regular ol’ human guy. If you could even call Garrett regular.
“Come in.” He stepped back and held out his arm. “I was just finishing something, but it can totally wait till later.”
I followed him into his studio, then stopped and stared around in awe. The space was bigger than your usual, say, English classroom, and it was filled with computers and servers and mainframes and things that I didn’t have names for but that looked pretty technologically advanced with all their cables and buttons and blinking lights. I’d never seen anything like this before. Everything the Nejerets had was sleek and new and made to fit in your pocket. It was all expensive and top-of-the-line, but it wasn’t made for things like this.
“So … how exactly is this an art studio?”
Garrett strode over to a monitor and clicked a few keys on a keyboard. The monitor went black. “I don’t know that I would actually call it an art, per se … but I do have a lot of creative freedom in my work.” He scanned around the converted classroom and all of the equipment it contained. “And I don’t call this a studio. It’s my lair.”
“You are such a dork.”
Garrett looked at me, eyebrows raised and brilliant blue eyes laughing. They matched his hair. “Katarina Dubois, are you flirting with me?” His eyebrows did a little dance. “If so …” He leaned on the edge of the monitor with his elbow. “Hey girl …”
“Like I said,” I laughed, “dork.” Being around him, someone who was so odd and good-natured, was a breath of fresh air after being around Nik all the time. It was either sarcasm or harsh reality with him—a good ol’ serious-fest. Garrett was the opposite of serious. The anti-serious.
“So, what’s brought you to my lair?” Garrett asked. “Not that I’m not stoked to see you. It’s just, well … I haven’t heard from you since you dropped out of school last year.” I didn’t actually drop out of school—I graduated early. Marcus pulled some strings and, well … the rest is history.
I traced my finger over the wires on a circuit board sitting on a table beside a bunch of tiny screwdrivers and other tools for working on miniature things. “I’m …” I took a deep breath. “A lot’s happened. My mom, she—” I swallowed roughly. “She died.”
“Shit …” Garrett rubbed his hand through his unkempt blue hair, making it stand on end. “Kat … I’m sorry. I had no idea.”
“Yeah, um … that’s actually sort of why I’m here.” I looked at him, looked away, back at him, then away again, unable to maintain eye contact for more than a couple seconds. “She was murdered, and I was hoping …” I was terrified he would refuse to help me. I didn’t have anyone else to go to, not anyone with skills like his, and I needed to find the Kin. I owed them pain, with interest.
Was I obsessed? Maybe. Did I care? Not a bit.
“Seriously, Kat, whatever you need, I’ll totally do it.” He crossed the room to stand in front of me, placing his hands on either side of my shoulders and ducking his head so his face was at the same height as mine. “What can I do? How can I help?”
“Well …” I pulled my bottom lip between my teeth. “There’s someone I need to find. Someone who was involved in what happened, and I want to track her down.” I raised my eyes, finally meeting his for more than a few seconds.
“So this is like a vengeance thing?” Garrett’s bright blue eyes lit up. “Awesome.”
31
Kat & Mouse
“Oh, yeah …” Garrett spun his chair and rolled one desk over. His nimble fingers typed away at a second keyboard, and he occasionally reached up to swipe something left or right or up or down or off the screen entirely with the tip of his finger. “I see you. Tricky, tricky …”
“What is it? What did you find?” I’d been standing at the broad window for the past half hour, zoning out while I stared down at the first-floor terrace. Or maybe zenning out—what used to be a basketball court had been converted into some sort of a giant Zen garden. Nik lounged in a chair nearby, his boots propped up on a low windowsill.
I rushed over to Garret’s complex multisystem interface and gripped the back of his chair. “What did you find?” I repeated, the tips of my fingers digging into the chair’s padding.
Garret glanced at me over his shoulder, a grin stretching across his entire face. “A report from the border—the Canadian border. The border guard turned away someone that sounds like your girl … about five three, slim, of Asian descent, and extremely hostile.”
He rolled back to the first computer, and I had no choice but to release his chair. “Apparently, she threatened the guard with a black sword that she produced out of nowhere—‘out of thin air,’ the report says—and managed to avoid detainment. But …” He glanced at me one more time, his eyes bright and his cheeks flushed. “Before all that, when she thought she’d be able to get through, our violent little magician friend presented her driver’s license to the guard.”
He turned his chair all the way around and leaned forward, hands clutching his knees. “The name on the license was Mari Smith, and I have a social.” He turned back around and reached for the mouse. “And a photo.”
On the monitor, a window opened displaying a Washington State driver’s license for one Mari Smith. I’d never actually seen a picture of Mari, but this woman on the screen—Asian, pretty, vibrant green eyes—she looked exactly how I pictured her in my mind, and there was no question that she was a Nejerette. No question all.
“It’s her,” I said, turning to exchange a look with Nik. “It has to be.”
Still grinning, Garrett nodded. “All right. Time to track her down …”
***
There wasn’t much besides computer equipment in Garrett’s lair. Nik and I waited at the only table not completely covered in priceless or irreplaceable tech stuff. I sat, watching Garrett type away—scrolling here or there, switching from monitor to monitor—and did my best to ignore the fact that Nik was staring at me from the other side of the table. I’m not known for my patience.
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