65. Thea
Chapter 65
Thea
W olfe and I still haven’t talked about what happened with Finn on the beach, but I know he wants to. I have conflicted feelings about it, so I appreciate him giving me time to figure my shit out, which basically means I’m finding ways to avoid thinking about it. My most recent avoidance tactic was to call Alexz and ask if he has any information about my mother.
That’s how I wound up here at a league mixer, at the Sandstone Social Club, doing my best to keep my snark locked away. I wasn’t invited, but I used my familial ties to get in. Ryland didn’t seem to mind me asking to tag along. We parted ways at the door. Finn and Holden are hovering nearby. I haven’t seen that asshole Pax yet.
I survey the room, making note of the high council members and recruitment committee members in attendance. There are six or seven other first-year female prospects here, with gentlemen I assume are their companions.
Ryland warned me that there are cameras all over the place. No one leaves without leaving dirt behind . He said The League will manipulate situations to expose your secrets, and if they don’t already have an angle they’re working, they’ll manufacture an incident for you. Most notably, they favor recording you in compromising positions. Since this is the first time women have been allowed to join, I imagine we serve dual purposes as the bait and the mark.
As uncomfortable as that thought is, it’s also a good reminder of why I came back to Canyon Falls. Revenge. The first step in achieving that goal is to use The League’s most basic trick against them. That requires someone besides The League of the Daggered Raven having information that can harm the powerful people in this room.
I had to check my phone at the door. Alexz expected that to be the case, so there’s a diamond encrusted ruby pendant, swinging between my breasts. There are tiny little cameras inside the jewels, and the ruby is a recording device. The switch to activate it is the ruby itself. I’ll use it for personal conversations and discreet recordings.
Alexz thinks they’ll exclude me from tonight’s games, since I wasn’t on the invite list, but just in case we’re wrong, I know from Ryland to expect for my interactions to involve something I would never want revealed.
It could be sexual. Or a confession of some sort. I haven’t, nor will I ever, willingly confess to shit. If it’s a sex thing, then my plan is to figure out how to use Finn and Holden’s misplaced interest in me against them. They’ll get over it.
And if that doesn’t work out. If I’m forced into a situation with someone else, I have a tranquilizer that’s strong enough to knock out a giant. All I have to do is spin the matching ring on my left index finger around and press it against any part of the person I can reach. The diamonds on the ring are actually tiny little needles. I have enough of the sedative to take out two or three people. The person will wake up with a headache thinking they passed out from drinking too much.
Alexz is overprotective and, of course, I argued I can protect myself, but secretly I’m glad he insisted on these safety measures. I felt even better with my decision when I saw a Phoenix agent prepping for his own mission with a similar setup. His tie clip and watch held his recording devices and his cufflinks contained the tranquilizer.
The room breaks out in applause, as whatever speech the guy at the front of the room was giving concludes and the Master of Ceremonies tells us to take advantage of the night and enjoy the entertainment and the rest of our evening.
I drift through the room, smiling politely at people. Since we’re free to wander around, I’ll be going from room to room trying to figure out where the cameras are being monitored from. The tech team thinks they operate on a wi-Fi network, but the recordings are kept on site, so the room will have a server and portable hard drives.
The closer I am to that location, the easier it will be for the tech guy to intercept the signal and do his computer magic to open a backdoor into the network or whatever it was he said. I probably should have paid attention, but tech is not my forte. If you tell me how to use the devices. I’m good. If you get into all the back end hacking shit, I’ll tell you to talk to Sasha. Which is what I told him. Then he gave me some shit about civilians and clearance. Like that’s ever stopped us before. But Sasha has her hands full with our business in Nags Creek, and I’d rather not bring her into this if I don’t have to. For now, I’m willing to see what the Phoenix Foundation can do.
“Prospect LaReaux?”
I freeze at the sound of the nasally pitched voice, slowly turning to face the man in front of me. I remember him from Indoc. He was another prospect’s liaison. He didn’t say much to me, but he didn’t speak up against the ways his buddies acted, either. “Most esteemed councilman Giles.”
He looks stunned that I remembered his name. “I didn’t expect to see you here this evening.” He chuckles nervously. “In fact, I didn’t expect to see you ever again.”
My spine snaps straighter. Is he insinuating that he didn’t expect to see me again because he helped Malcolm? “And why is that?”
“Because of your placement on the scoreboard. Very few prospects mingle with us with scores that low. They find it best to stay out of sight and then disappear into obscurity when they’re dropped. I believe it’s less embarrassing for them that way.”
“I believe I have plenty of time to make up some ground on the scoreboard. All it takes is one mega-sized challenge or several smaller ones to put me back in the game.”
“Is that why you’re here?” He asks. “To get back in the game? Because if so, this is definitely an opportunity, and there will be others if you get some members on your side, to advocate for those big challenge announcements to happen sooner rather than later.”
When I don’t respond, he stammers, “It’s all perfectly within the allowed conduct of the members. No rules are broken or anything. We tend to make suggestions, and vote on them, then route them to the game masters, and we bet on our favorite prospects.”
Opportunity? Does he think I’m too stupid to know he means the super secret times and locations where they debase each other? Yeah. If I’m gonna be whored out, it’ll be on my terms, and challenge points are not enough to convince me to do that. “Were these opportunities around before women could join?” He looks horrified. Positively aghast. Did I read him wrong?
“Prospect LaReaux, I can assure you that… this… That was not what I mean. At all . The men are given these opportunities to sit down with us so we can get to know them better. We have food, drinks, play cards. Go golfing or sailing. Some people do community outreach projects. All very above board. It’s just a chance to interact outside of the complexities of league social activities and meetings. To uplift the prospects who may be struggling and to offer what advice we can without breaking the rules.”
He sighs. “I guess I can understand why you thought I was suggesting something otherwise. There are those in our society who will come to you with that type of offer.”
He reaches into his suit and pulls out a card. “If you change your mind, and would like to join us for the next game night, just call my wife. She’s managing the guest list and organizing everything.” He gives me a half bow, nod and walks away.
That was an odd yet helpful interaction. While councilman Giles was talking, I watched the rug hanging on the wall behind him shift to the side, revealing a door from which a league member exited a room with a bunch of screens in it. Luckily, councilman Giles was too flustered to ask what I was doing out here.
This next part will be the easiest to accomplish. I walk over to the tapestry and read the label plate, which says it’s an original work from an artist in California. I take a moment to admire the artwork and the woven intricacies of the design. From my clutch, I pull out a button and clasp.
Originally, I was supposed to fasten the device together and just drop it on the floor where it risked getting kicked away, or stepped on. Or drop it in a cigar tray if there was one nearby. But now, I have a better idea.
I hate to do this to such a beautiful piece of work. I pull the side of the tapestry back and am presented with a Made in China tag, which immediately changes my mind about my regret. I shove the button through the threads of the tapestry from behind, and click the back on it to secure it in place.
The rest will be left up to chance, since there’s no way for me to contact the Phoenix tech team to verify the device is transmitting anything useful. I slip back into the party and drift from one crowd to the other. Never actually engaging with anyone. Just lingering close enough to pick up snippets of their conversations. Pax’s father is in the center of the room. I keep him in my sights the entire time. He doesn’t approach me like he’s done before, but he watches me just as intently as I watch him.