Port of Tema, Ghana – April, 1992
I was too late. After I’d tortured this location out of Kier, I’d raced here as fast as I could, but they’d felt him die, and they’d taken precautions
I stared down at the smoking rubble of the house the luchd-òl fola had been staying in. Metal bars stood in one corner, and I hoped they’d killed any Wonders they’d been keeping captive before they set the place on fire.
Fuck.
This was the closest I’d gotten to Prince Nicol, if he was still alive. But there were still nineteen luchd-òl fola to guard him.
They’d either leave town by car or by boat. Flying was too public, especially if they still had the prince. But the port was huge. They could hire a captain to take them anywhere. I got back in the car. Time to use my vampire abilities to get some information.
The harbor master’s office was tiny and full of papers, but it boasted a huge set of windows overlooking the port.
And, luckily for me, it also held an ancient security camera system.
When I’d asked about a large group of people needing a boat at the last minute, the man’s eyes had narrowed, and he’d eagerly started hinting at how large a bribe he’d need to tell me which ship they’d taken.
I didn’t have time to negotiate, so I put him in thrall right away. I’d tuck some money in his pocket when I left.
On my instructions, he fast-forwarded through one of the security camera tapes and showed me a dock. The time stamp was ten hours ago. I’d been so fucking close.
I wrote down the ship’s name and identification number.
The harbor master told me it was taking a load of petroleum to Rio de Janeiro.
On the screen we watched the luchd-òl fola walk aboard.
Fraser was carrying someone wrapped in blankets as if they were ill.
The person was human-sized, too short to be an Elf or another of the luchd-òl fola, but it couldn’t be anyone other than Prince Nicol.
I was relieved to know he was still alive, even if I was also horrified at what he had to have gone through all these years.
When the tape showed the ship casting off from the dock, I made the harbor master go back and slowly play the part where my former colleagues walked onto the ship. I wrote down everyone I saw so I could compare it to the list I’d been keeping.
But Kinnon wasn’t there. He hadn’t gotten on the ship.
I hadn’t killed him, and there was no way he hadn’t been involved in the initial kidnapping of Prince Nicol.
Had he had a falling out with the others? Had he died from some other cause? Had he stayed behind to hunt me down?
Now I had yet another reason to catch up to the luchd-òl fola. Good thing I could to take a plane to Rio and get ahead of that ship.