18. Arch
ARCH
When I got to the office, everyone was in the conference room.
Simpson and Kraus were sitting at the table, looking relieved to see me, but Lee and Fortnell were standing and appeared agitated.
Lee was pacing, arms crossed, and Fortnell wiped his eyes as if he’d been crying.
When I walked in, he shouted, “I didn’t mean to do it! I don’t remember doing it!”
Behind me, Carlyle muttered, “I thought Hunters were supposed to be stoic and professional.”
Mercy appeared, wringing her hands. “Dimi and I went with Simpson and Kraus in case they got separated while they were shopping. Garfield was checking on the wolves.”
I nodded at her. My team knew I could talk to ghosts, and we’d used them as scouts on missions before, but there hadn’t been an opportunity to mention the ghosts had been monitoring them today. It could wait a few minutes.
I held up my hands and looked around the room. “Somebody start at the beginning.”
Lee stopped pacing and stood, feet shoulder-width apart.
She kept her arms crossed. “Around 3:00 p.m. Fortnell and I met here in the conference room to discuss how we’d relocated the Wonders from Mexico.
We wanted to see if we could put procedures in place for future similar situations, like we’re doing with the rescue preparations. ”
“Got it. Good idea.”
She flashed me a strained smile. “Kraus and Simpson should tell you the next part.”
Kraus tapped the table with his knuckles.
“Simpson and I were picking up the new tablets and some of the other supplies. We got back here a little before 5:00 p.m. We’d seen Lee and Fortnell’s cars in the lot, but we didn’t go looking for them until after we’d put away the stuff we’d bought, so around fifteen or so minutes later.
They weren’t in their offices, and this door was closed, so we knocked and opened it.
” He looked at Simpson, who took up the narrative.
“I was the first one through the door. Lee and Fortnell were sitting on either side of the table.” He pointed at two empty chairs. “They were just staring at each other without speaking, and they didn’t move until we touched them.”
An icy chill ran over my entire body. They’d been mesmerized, given an instruction, and carried it out.
“I don’t remember anything after Lee and I started our meeting, I swear.” Fortnell put his palms against his eyes. Kraus held out a box of tissues I hadn’t noticed before and nudged Fortnell’s arm with it.
“It’s the same for me.” Lee pressed her lips together and waved at Simpson to continue.
“Naturally, Captain, the first thing we did was check the security cameras, but they’d been wiped, mostly.”
“Mostly?”
He nodded. “Everything on all cameras from 3:11 p.m. to 4:26 p.m was erased, both on the main hard drive and the backup, except the lobby camera. That one was only erased up to 4:20 p.m.” He darted a glance at Fortnell, who was standing at the window, staring out.
“The extra time showed Fortnell crossing the lobby toward the server room, then coming back and going into the conference room.”
Fuck. “The auctioneer wanted us to know he’d made Fortnell wipe the recordings. He knows we know about the mesmerizing.” Everyone nodded. “Fortnell, it’s not your fault.”
He whirled, tissue clutched in one hand.
“I should’ve been able to fight him off!
I should be able to remember!” I walked over to him and enveloped him in a hug.
Funny how it wouldn’t have occurred to me to do this before I’d started seeing Manny and Oz.
Fortnell stiffened at first, but then he relaxed into me. “I’m sorry, Captain.”
“You’re not to blame.” I waited until he disengaged before turning to everyone else.
“None of you are to blame. You were violated and forced to do things against your will. This guy is channeling the power of a vampire, which we don’t have any defenses against. You need to remind yourself of that.
Once we put this motherfucker in the ground, then we’ll find someone for y’all to talk to. Hell, I need someone to talk to.”
I pointed at Lee, who was shifting from foot to foot. “You’re at the whiteboard, Lee. We need a list of everything the auctioneer might’ve gotten from us while he was here.”
She cocked her head. “Not just stuff we could tell him?”
“That too, but don’t limit yourselves.”
I guided Fortnell to a chair as Lee took position at the whiteboard. She seemed steadier now with something to do. On the right side of the board she made a header “Things We Know” and on the other side was “Things He Could Take”.
I sat next to Fortnell. “Okay, what are things we know that the auctioneer might’ve learned today?”
People called things out, and Lee wrote them down.
The locations of the Wonders from Mexico, though neither Lee nor Fortnell knew exact addresses without looking them up.
That we were aware of the auctioneer’s power and how he was getting his information.
That Manny was a healer, since I’d revealed that to all of them last night.
Carlyle piped up, “They knew you were picking Manuel’s mother and her girlfriend from the airport.”
I whipped my head around to stare at him. I’d messaged the team to let them know where I’d be in case I was needed, but why was that important? He regarded me implacably. “You’d be tied up, out of the office, and, potentially, he’d be able to find out where Manny’s mother lives.”
So she could be used as a fucking hostage.
Shit. I asked Lee to add that to the board.
While she wrote, I texted Manny and Oz to be on guard for anyone following them.
Then I turned to Mercy. “Can you please check on Manny and Oz and Manny’s mother?
” She gave me a thumbs up and vanished. Everyone else was staring at me, so I said, “Mercy was here.” They nodded.
I cleared my throat. “Okay, let’s move on to what the auctioneer might’ve taken from us. ”
Kraus raised a forefinger. “I did a sweep of the offices, and I didn’t see anything out of place.”
Shaking her head, Lee wrote on the board. The Wonder relocation file. “It’s on the server. Maybe he made us copy it to a thumb drive or something.”
That led to a much bigger list of data and files we wouldn’t want the auctioneer to have. But none of us knew how to tell whether they’d been taken or not. I unlocked my phone to text Dominic.
Me:
Lee and Fortnell were mesmerized today inside the office. Security cameras wiped. I’ll give you a full report later. Can you send me Cal Steadham’s phone number? I want to see if we can find any evidence of computer tampering.
In addition to being a Seer, Cal was the most tech-savvy person in the campaign, at least in Texas. He co-owned a software company. I just hoped he could help.
Dominic:
Fuck. I’ll ask him to call you. Give me a sec.
My phone rang a few minutes later. It was Cal. I put the phone on speaker and explained the situation to him.
“Well, shit. That’s fucking scary. Um, when you busted the trafficking ring, did you find a lot of computers or other tech?”
“No. Exterior security cameras only. No laptops or servers. If he’s got a base of operations, that wasn’t it.”
“Okay, hopefully that means he’s old school. The two of you who were mesmerized, Lee and Fortnell, right? Can you please go into your sent email folders and then your deleted email folders and see if you’ve got anything you don’t remember sending?”
Holy fuck. Lee and Fortnell both jumped up and ran for their offices. I followed with the phone, staying in the lobby so I could see both of them. In seconds, Lee gave a horrified cry. I rushed to her doorway.
“I emailed him the file with all the relocated Wonders’ addresses!”
Fortnell appeared at my side. “I emailed him my email password, my phone’s login code, and the URL for the Hunters’ file sharing server.” He unlocked his phone. “I’m gonna change the passcode now.”
Holy shit. This was bad. This was really, really bad.
Cal interrupted my panic spiral. “Okay, both of you forward me what you sent.” He rattled off his email address. “He was probably using a dummy email address, but I’ll check it out anyway.”
Garfield manifested next to me, and I jumped. “Shit!” He grabbed at my arm, but his hand just passed through. “The auctioneer took them!”
“What? Took who?” Even though I knew. I knew down to my very bones.
“He took all of them. Manny, Oz, Manny’s mother, and her girlfriend.”