Chapter 5 #2
The vision pulled back, giving me a brief glimpse of two rivers and a stepping stone path that crossed one and led to the ruined castle I’d also seen in the library, then darkness swept in again and spun me into another location entirely.
One that provided no images, only sound, meaning I was about to “see” Carla and whoever her damn boss was.
It was a damnably frustrating situation, but until I found some way of getting past whatever shield they were using and could force these visions into both sound and sight mode, there wasn’t much I could do.
Why have you called me here at this hour? Carla’s voice was sharp and annoyed. It is dangerous, given the council still meet. I cannot be absent for too long. You know this.
A statement that suggested Carla was not only the lover of one—or more—of the councilors but also worked there.
Elves of either variety were generally not adverse to engaging in an office romance or two, and many of the shifters had high sex drives as well.
Given Carla’s ability to basically take on any form she wished, it wouldn’t be hard for her to uncover a councilor’s preferences and subtly play to them.
You’ve heard of the robbery at Tylwyth Teg?
The man’s tinny tone was curt. Aside from the fact he was still using the voice modulator—though why he was bothering when he and Carla were lovers and she obviously knew his identity, I had no idea—he was obviously very annoyed at her. Which was interesting. What the hell had she done?
It was the talk of the council meeting for the first hour or so, she replied dryly. Why?
You kept a box there, did you not?
There was a long pause. Yes. How did you know? It was not under the name of my usual identities.
I have known you for a very long time, remember, and my memory is keen. That identity’s box was the target. He took everything within it, and nothing else.
If he had that information, it meant this man was either working for the bank or was a part of the IIT investigative team. Ruadhán was obviously right to lock the file down when he had, but maybe he needed to take a closer look at the people on this investigation.
What did you have in there? he added in a low growl.
Security, she replied. Though her voice was even, I had a vague sense that panic bubbled underneath that calmness.
What sort of security? Not names, I hope, because I will bury you so damn deep—
A comment that was very interesting, given that was a method favored by dark elves wanting to get rid of their foes.
Up until this point, we’d suspected that those behind the theft of the hoard had come mainly from the light elf camp, as they were the ones responsible for protecting it.
But perhaps we needed to look for suspects in the Myrkálfar camp, too.
And lose not only the best fuck you’ve had in decades, but also your best spy? Carla’s laugh was harsh. Come now, we both know that will not happen.
Do not ever overestimate your value to me. The cause is worth far more to me than you ever will be.
And your cause would have stalled multiple times if not for me, she snapped back. Who was it that gave you the information about the pixie witch? Without that, she might have succeeded in stopping the hoard’s theft.
Carla was the one who’d passed on the information about Mom? If that were true, then she was dead. So dead. There would be no justice for her, no court appearance. In darkness and in lightning she would die, as Mom had died, in agony....
I shivered and tried to rein in the furious darkness that roiled through me. The vision hadn’t faded. There was more to be learned.
Her death landed us with an even bigger problem.
Which is not my fault. Who knew the bitch’s offspring would turn out to have stronger gifts than her fucking mother? Carla sniffed. What is being done to retrieve the box’s contents?
The usual, came the angry reply. Now answer the question—what was in there, Brídín?
Brídín? If that was the name she’d been born with, then we might have gotten our first useful clue.
No fucking names, remember? The witch may be listening in.
She is with Mathi. They are researching options to get past the guards stationed at the address registered with the bank.
How the fuck would he know that? Was Mathi’s car or home bugged?
You’ve taken measures to stop that, I gather.
I can only do so much without risking my cover. Now answer the question—what was in the box?
Birth records, passports, property documents, stuff like that.
Nothing incriminating in regard to me or our plans, then?
There was just the tiniest hesitation before she said, No.
Liar, instinct whispered, and that only made it more important than ever we got the thief before the IIT did.
Because once they had him, Carla would no doubt erase him, as she had erased other IIT prisoners.
Even if the IIT locked him down, it was hard to protect him from someone who could assume the identity of almost any woman she touched.
Which meant, of course, they simply had to make sure everyone who dealt with or protected him was male.
And the address listed with the bank? Anything there we should be worried about?
I wouldn’t have thought so, came Carla’s reply. I haven’t lived there for quite a while.
The witchling has second sight, remember. It might not take much to set it off.
The safe is empty, and there’s nothing in the office.
Personal items?
Nothing that would now hold any resonance or memory.
The man grunted. It remained an unhappy sound. If you lie—
I have no reason to lie, and every reason to avoid capture, given it would ultimately mean my death. Trust that, even if you don’t trust me.
Another grunt. I will update once I have any news. I trust you will do the same.
Your every wish is my command, Carla said, a weird mix of amusement and bitterness in her voice.
It was almost as if she herself had no choice but to obey.
Had she been pixied? Possibly, though not even a pixie’s will could last the centuries that Carla had apparently been alive.
Hell, I had no idea if it would even hold if she took on a completely different form.
Technically, it should, but who really knew when it came to one form of magic against another?
The vision fell away, and the building’s song rose around me again, informing me that Mathi was downstairs in my living area.
I took a deep breath to calm my still-racing pulse but didn’t immediately leave the loft, instead calling Sgott.
He didn’t answer, so I left a message telling him our face shifter’s real name, and that one of her aliases owned the box that our thief had taken.
Then I pushed to my feet and headed back down the ladder.
Mathi was in the process of making a pot of tea, but it was the heavenly scent of bacon that led my nose over to the living area and the brown paper bag that sat on the coffee table.
There was also a takeout cup of coffee but that obviously wasn’t meant for me, given he was making tea and he generally avoided it.
“Since when did you become so domesticated?” I picked up the bag and discovered two bacon butties along with the hot chips. “You’re spoiling me here.”
“It’s more self-preservation,” he drawled. “I have previous experience when it comes to you and a food-and-tea-deprived state, remember.”
I laughed, sat down on the sofa, and pulled out the food, munching on some chips while I unwrapped the butties. He placed a mug and the cozy-covered teapot beside my chips, then moved over to the other sofa and picked up his coffee.
“What did you see?”
I gave him a detailed description of both visions, then added, “Wherever you were when you made that call, it sounds like it is bugged. There’s no other way he could have known what we were up to, because Sgott still regularly sweeps for them up here.”
Instead of answering, he retrieved his phone and made a call, placing it on speaker so that I could hear.
“Yes, sir?” Henrick said.
“Code one search. Immediately.”
“Bagged or destroyed?” Henrick asked implacably. Obviously, code one searches were not new to him.
“Bagged. I want a trace-back done.”
“Immediately, sir.”
He hung up. Mathi placed his phone on the table and took a drink of his coffee. “There are few places the public has access to my car. It should be easy enough to get the security footage and uncover who did this.”
“Why would they bother bugging you now and not before, though?”
He shrugged. “Until we find those responsible for the bugs, if indeed we find any, that is not a question I can answer. Have you googled the rivers you saw in the vision?”
“No, because I called Sgott first, then smelled the bacon and came straight down.”
He half laughed, picked up his phone, and searched for various options while I ate my food and drank my tea.
“Well,” he said, after a good ten minutes. “Let me assure you that there are plenty of ruined castles sitting on riverbanks within the UK.”
“That’s because rivers used to be strategically important back in those days. The question is, how many of them are near the convergence of two rivers?”
He gave me a somewhat pained look. “Far too many. It would help if your visions or the Codex itself were a little more detailed.”
On that we both agreed. I wrinkled my nose. “I’ll try to get something a little more detailed once we’ve checked out that cottage... but save the list so we can work out a plan of attack once we get more time.”
“Done,” he said, after a moment.
“Did you did get an answer to either of your calls?”
“I did, but thankfully, it was as I was walking down the lane. Option two is the best, I’m afraid.”
“Surprised, I am not.” I finished the final butty and licked the grease from my fingers. “What are the chances of your phone being bugged?”
“The police and the IIT could certainly be using IMSI catchers, but they’d need a court order to do so, and my father would have warned me.”
“What the hell is an IMSI catcher?”