19. I no die, right? #2
I found Tiffany pacing along the fence, and she gaped at me while I rubbed my temples and debated how to survive through the rest of the night. All things considered, getting straight to the chase would work best. “I need you to call the CDC and request a napalm tanker, please.”
Tiffany hung her head and sighed. “I sent Bailey in there, and you come out? This is not normal. Where’s Bailey?”
“Cruising an ambrosia high somewhere. Winfield got a hold of an entire ampoule of ambrosia. Because Bailey was involved, of course she got dosed with the ambrosia. What can go wrong does go wrong, and I, being the fool I am, left my medications with your husband.”
Tiffany’s brows shot up. “That was stupid of him. Is she inside going on a bender? If you need the medication, I can get it for you, so don’t worry yourself about that. And if needed, I can insert my foot in your ass and deliver a dose that way.”
She would. I opted to ignore the threat; if she needed to insert her foot in my ass, it was because I deserved it. “I don’t know where Bailey is, precisely,” I replied, unable to keep my tone neutral. “And Janet has the name of a potential conspirator.”
“Shit. Who?”
“Chief Morriston,” Janet replied, stepping to my side. “Hey, Tiffers.”
“You look like hell, Jan-Jan. You all right?”
I foresaw a lot of trouble in my future, as I had not expected Tiffany to be close enough friends with Janet to warrant cutesy nicknames. When Tiffany used cutesy nicknames, it meant trouble was surely on the horizon.
Tiffany plus Bailey plus Janet might give me a full head of gray hair and a complex.
“I think so.” Janet pointed at me. “Do you see this?”
“As a matter of fact, yes. I do. He’s part incubus and part gorgon, and his genetics created quite an interesting secondary form.
He won’t let me experiment with him. It’s no wonder Bailey gets so flustered about him.
She knows exactly what goods he’s packing, and she’s one of the most jealous women I’ve ever met. In a good way, of course.”
Janet nodded.
“The napalm, Tiffany?” I begged.
“Hold your horses, Chief. We won’t have a way to reliably light it. I’m trying to figure that part out. What excuse am I giving them for the tanker?”
I sighed. “An entire hive of gorgons died in there, and I have no way of knowing if there’s any dust or if there’s dust in production. The entire structure has to go. It’s also possible the bodies are a rabies vector.”
“How long have they been dead?”
I shrugged. “No idea. Gorgons don’t decay quite the same way humans do. It’s been long enough I’m worried their ashes will convert to dust if left alone.”
“We’ll need containment mages, then. And Bailey to light it. Any idea on her ETA?”
“No idea, but I can take care of lighting the napalm.”
“How?”
“I called in a favor and got a lesson in shapeshifting to a cindercorn,” I admitted.
“Damn, Sam. Bailey’s going to go nuts when she learns you’re an on-demand stallion for her amusement.” Tiffany snickered.
I wished triplets on her as a special form of revenge, and I’d have to have that little Christmas present of hers contain some extra bite. Maybe quadruplets. Arthur and Tiffany definitely deserved quadruplets. “I’m so glad you’re enjoying yourself, Tiffany. Anyway, she already knows.”
“When it’s at your expense? Always.”
“Can you please just call for a tanker, Tiffany? I don’t have my phone.”
Tiffany handed me hers. “You can call. If I ask, they’ll laugh at me and accuse me of wanting to feed it to the crazy unicorn. Just don’t tell them you’re going to be the crazy unicorn tonight.”
I hated she was right, and sighing, I looked up the number for the primary CDC switchboard and placed the call. It took over twenty minutes of snarling at idiots to be put through to the last man on Earth I wanted to deal with, Marshal Clemmends.
“What do you need, Chief Quinn?”
“There’s an old gypsum mine in Nevada, and I need a napalm tanker, a containment team, and pyros to light it up. There are a lot of dead gorgons inside, and it should be flagged as a high risk of becoming contaminated with gorgon dust.”
“Why must you insist on toying with gorgons, Chief Quinn?”
“I didn’t toy with any gorgons this time. They kidnapped a police officer. She’s been safely recovered, but she’ll require treatment for rabies, as it’s unknown if she was exposed. It’s probable the gorgons were rabid, and it’s unknown if the virus will spread.”
“If I hadn’t already had several documented cases of gorgons infected with rabies hit my desk this week, I would say you were screwing with me, Chief Quinn. I just have one question. Will your wife be on hand for this napalming?”
“Unknown. She’s currently not at the site, but if the techs are incapable of lighting the napalm, I can handle it.”
“You can? How?”
“Through a careful application of fire,” I replied, careful to keep my tone neutral. “You were aware of my unique ancestry, correct?”
“Yes. Unfortunately. Very well. If you say you can get it lit, I’ll trust you. How big of a site is it?”
“It’s an old gypsum mining operation that seems to have been abandoned. It’s miles from civilization, so there’s no chance of the fires spreading to any buildings nearby.”
“Got an address?”
I turned to Tiffany. “What’s the address of this place?”
“Hell if I know. It’s a gypsum mine east of Vegas. There’s only one of them just east of Vegas.”
One day, I would retire, life would become normal, and I meant to enjoy it. “It’s a gypsum mine just east of Vegas,” I informed my wife’s ex-boss. “There’s only one of them.”
“You have no idea where you’re at, do you?”
“I teleported to the site.”
“Ah. I see. I’m sure I can find it. I’ll authorize the tanker. Is there water accessible?”
“Doubtful.”
“I’ll send two napalm tankers and several water tankers to make certain there’s sufficient volume. What grade?”
“Use the same stuff used on 120 Wall Street.”
Clemmends sighed. “I was hoping you wouldn’t say that.
Very well. I’m only authorizing this because it’s a remote site and you’ll be in charge of the operation.
” There was a long moment of silence. “Actually, scratch that. I’m going to authorize your wife to help ignite the napalm should she show up.
I may as well earn some good favor with her for a change. ”
“That will make up for assigning her to work with the bomb squad.”
“Found out about that, did you?”
“Not from her. Someone snitched.” I arched a brow in Janet’s direction, one of several snitchers.
The woman grinned and waved at me.
“It was good developmental training for her new job. I had her trained in the traditional disarming of most devices. She’s also been trained to handle nuclear weaponry, although we did no live testing. She tests quite high on working with schematics. She’s wasted in the CDC as a contractor.”
My brows shot up at that. “Was that a compliment I heard, Clemmends?”
“Don’t have a heart attack. Despite my lack of a functional relationship with your wife, I do respect her learning capacity and general skills. She’s miserable in the CDC, and while I recognize she’s excessively well-trained, she’s in a better position to be productive with you in the NYPD.”
“And here I thought you were just trying to get rid of her.”
“That, too.”
“What’s the CDC’s jurisdiction in dust cases and potential involvement with the kidnapping of a law enforcement officer?”
“I can get jurisdiction joint with the FBI. Why?”
“John Winfield, a former cadet of the NYPD, was behind the kidnapping. He is the ex-son-in-law of Chief Morriston.”
“Morriston?”
“He’s the kidnapped officer’s chief. He oversees the Hamptons.”
Bailey’s ex-boss mulled over that in silence, and I waited, aware of Janet glaring at me.
Finally, the man sighed. “And her chief would have access to her schedule and be able to make arrangements for such a kidnapping in a way where no one would be aware of the officer’s disappearance—which is exactly what happened until she was scheduled to show up for her shift.
While her chief isn’t specifically named in this file, there was an accusation of abandoning her duty.
That was overturned when it was exposed she had likely been a kidnapping victim. ”
I could see a vindictive ex-cadet attempting to frame his target, and the NYPD took such accusations seriously. “You’re aware of the situation?”
“The documentation hit my desk because of your country-wide jurisdiction. Let me guess: you’d like to be involved with Morriston’s questioning.”
“I certainly wouldn’t mind being the arresting officer along with my wife.”