Chapter 16
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Tori
“Two members of the Pandora Knights were arrested an hour ago,” Kai reported, his gaze on his phone as we walked.
It wasn’t even six at night, but the sun had long set. Yay for northern winters. I pulled my jacket collar up against the cold wind whipping down Granville Street and resisted the urge to look over my shoulder at the other pedestrians trudging under the glow of the streetlamps.
The back of my neck prickled, though that had become a regular occurrence lately. Whether or not it meant we were being watched, I had no freaking idea.
“Or at least, that’s what the Pandora Knights are assuming,” Kai went on, seemingly immune to the frigid wind.
“The missing pair disappeared from their apartment. No summons, case files, charges, or anything from the MPD. Laetitia, Venus, and Blair are on their way to see if Blair can find a trail to follow.”
Unlikely. These SI guys were operating like terrorists, not law enforcement officers.
“Anyone else disappeared?” I asked, squeezing in closer to Kai as a cranky-ass businessman heading in the opposite direction crowded me. I flinched as headlights panned across us from the rush-hour traffic.
Kai grimaced. “A mentalist from MiraCo. SI agents raided her house last night.”
A sickening fear cut through me. How many Vancouver mythics had the SI arrested?
We didn’t know. All the guilds were scrambling to protect their members.
Aaron and the other Crow and Hammer officers had everyone buddied up and rotating locations, with frequent check-ins, but even that didn’t feel like enough.
Kai pocketed his phone as we reached the door of a nondescript pub. Stepping across the threshold after him, I glanced over my shoulder again, but there was no way to tell if anyone among the foot traffic was an SI agent.
We were greeted by a moody, red-lit interior that my current paranoia deeply appreciated.
The pub was narrow, with a long bar on the right and tables on the left.
I gave the blond bartender a professional nod as we passed.
In the dimly lit back area, Kai stopped beside a booth.
I slid in first, and he took the spot next to me.
The mythic sitting across from us was hunched into his winter parka. He was a compact guy with dark hair buzzed into a short, neat mohawk, and his gaunt face made him look kind of sickly.
“Agent Park,” I greeted, keeping my voice low.
“Miss Dawson.” He straightened out of his slouch, an unexpected steeliness coming into his expression. “Mr. Yamada. Thank you for coming.”
“Wouldn’t have missed it,” I drawled. “Spotting a non-SI MPD agent in Vancouver is like a city-wide game of Where’s Waldo? these days.”
His steely expression hardened further. “We’re outnumbered, that’s for sure.”
“What’s happening at the precinct?” Kai asked in a low voice.
“Chaos,” Agent Park muttered. “But that’s not why we’re here.”
“Then why are we here?”
A shadow fell across our table. Kai stiffened, but before either of us could react, the new arrival was sliding onto the bench beside Agent Park.
I stared at the woman’s aristocratic features, wavy blond hair, and blue eyes that could have passed for high-powered laser beams with the way they locked onto my face. If precinct agents were an endangered species, then this woman was a unicorn.
“Captain Blythe,” Kai murmured, a note of caution in his voice. He didn’t ask where she’d been for the past three months—so I did.
“What the hell happened to you?” I demanded. “Evil SI agents have taken over your precinct, in case you hadn’t noticed.”
Agent Park opened his mouth angrily, but Captain Blythe raised a hand, silencing him.
“Miss Dawson.” Her withering displeasure hit me with physical force. “I am well aware of the state of my precinct. More to the point, I know what’s really happening in our city.”
While I could think of several pithy responses, I didn’t want to end up on the receiving end of another one of those cutting glares. Instead, I asked, “And what’s that?”
“A clandestine takeover of the MPD at its highest levels.”
My stomach did another sickening, sinking rush down to my feet, the weight of her statement muting my voice.
“Internal Affairs, Obscura Influentia, and Special Investigations are all under the control of a corrupt faction.” She tapped a finger sharply against the tabletop between us.
“They’re in the process of solidifying their hold over the entire MPD, and what they’re doing here in Vancouver is part of that. ”
“Why Vancouver?” Kai asked.
She ignored his question. “Unifying against them is the only way we’ll survive this.
I’m not saying this as an MPD captain; I’m saying it as a member of this mythic community.
The lines of allegiance have been redrawn, and it doesn’t matter where any of us stood before.
Right now, it’s us, the people of Vancouver, versus them—the tools and puppets of corruption. ”
My eyes widened with each word until I was leaning forward, my breath caught in my chest.
“What do you need us to do?” Kai asked.
Agent Park reached into his parka and withdrew a bundle of paper. He slid it across the table to Kai.
“This agent went missing after leaving the precinct yesterday evening,” he said. “He’s a telepath—a very good one—and he knows things, key information, that we can’t allow the SI to learn.”
Kai gave the first sheet a quick perusal, then flipped it up to check the second page.
“That’s everything we can provide about his home address, vehicle, license plate, etcetera,” Agent Park added. “The sooner you can find him, the better.”
“So he wasn’t arrested?” I asked, tucking a lock of hair behind my ear. “Did you check the precinct holding cells for him?”
“The holding cells are empty.”
I froze. Beside me, Kai went still.
“The holding cells are empty,” Agent Park repeated, his tone grim and his hands clenched into fists on the table. “We don’t know where the SI agents are taking their prisoners.”
Kai swore under his breath.
“It could be one location or dozens,” Captain Blythe added. “I have others working on that. You focus on finding our missing agent.”
Nodding, Kai refolded the papers and slid them into an inner jacket pocket. “How should we contact you?”
Agent Park pulled out his phone, and he and Kai exchanged contact details on the encrypted messaging app we were using.
Captain Blythe slid out of the booth, and Agent Park followed her.
“Wait,” I said, scooting forward to see past Kai. “You didn’t say—why Vancouver? And what does all this have to do with Darius and Kit?”
Captain Blythe’s eyes flashed with an emotion I couldn’t interpret. “It has everything to do with Darius and Kit. They’re the reason the enemy is targeting Vancouver. But we can’t wait for them to return—if they return.”
She delivered her final words with cool, unwavering precision. “This is our fight now.”