CHAPTER 5
BACK AT THE Guildhouse,
they rode an elevator up to the InterSec unit. Laura caught curious
stares from the other passengers. Although she and Sinclair hadn’t
been at the crime scene long, enough airborne particulate had
settled on their clothing that a fey with mild sensitivity could
sense smoke, maybe the C-4. If she could smell it on Sinclair,
other fey could smell it on her. If they hadn’t been wearing
InterSec jumpsuits, no doubt someone would have called
security.
Reaching their floor, Sinclair went off to the
conference room while Laura trailed down the hallway in the
opposite direction. She found Cress sorting through labeled glass
jars filled with what looked like dried herbs. Laura paused in the
door and watched her work.
She marveled at how such a small person could be so
dangerous. Essence manipulation was not dictated by a person’s
size, but the frail Cress hardly seemed like anyone’s worst
nightmare. Leanansidhe were rare among the
solitary fey, but not so obscure that people didn’t know what they
looked like. And they all looked similar. On the occasion when
Cress talked about the leanansidhe, she
referred to them as her sisters, which made sense from a physical
standpoint. They did have a familial resemblance, at least among
the ones in the archive pictures Laura had seen. Cress was the only
one she had met in person, but they were all short, with thick
black hair falling in rippled waves to their shoulders. Their
heart-shaped faces, with their delicate features, had lured more
than one person to their deaths. Their eyes truly set them apart,
though. Deepest black with no whites. Laura found that aspect
disconcerting at times.
Cress smiled without looking up from her work. “If
you’re spying on me, you’re not doing a very good job.”
Laura chuckled as she stepped into the room. “I’m
sorry. I was woolgathering. What are you working on?”
Cress held up a vial with something green floating
in a clear fluid. “Today, I am a botanist. We’re trying to figure
out where that panel truck from your morning mission has been, so
I’m looking at the junk in the tire treads.”
Cress worked a dual-function job with InterSec. Her
primary role as a forensic investigator drew on decades of
knowledge. In fact, it was her species that made her particularly
adept when dealing with fey crime. Her acute sensitivity to essence
allowed her to see things a druid might miss. But that
responsibility had evolved out of an earlier fascination: medicine.
As she made her way in the Convergent world, Cress had focused her
attention on healing and became a doctor, one of the first fey to
have been graduated from an American medical school. Her
achievement caused a sensation in both the human and fey worlds.
Humans feared the fey, and Cress’s securing a spot in a human
program caused all kinds of xenophobic reactions. As she was a
leanansidhe, one of the most feared beings
of Faerie, the fey treated her no better.
As Laura drew closer, Cress wrinkled her nose.
“C-4?” she said.
If there was one thing Laura had learned about
leanansidhe , it was that their abilities
made them more sensitive to everything, not only essence. She
dropped the evidence envelope on the desk. “Exactly what I thought.
I tried to get some sample without the D.C.P.D. realizing it. Can
you run these gloves and see if it has any taggant?”
Legal manufacturers of C-4 embedded idiosyncratic
chemicals that served as identification markers. The taggants
provided clues as to who manufactured a particular explosive as
well as who the intended customer was. From there, following the
chain of custody to determine where it got loose in the world would
be a matter of running down paperwork. If they were lucky. Making
C-4 wasn’t a mystery. It could be done illegally if someone had the
right connections to buy the materials. That would be a lead since
the raw materials were tracked, too.
Cress moved the envelope to a tray. “Of course. Is
this from the bomb that went off this evening?”
“Yes. Terryn’s not happy at how it’s being
handled.”
“Are you taking the case?” Cress asked.
She shook her head. “Not directly. We’re looking at
all the attacks from a broader perspective. A number of small
connections to the Legacy case we’re working on have cropped up,
but we’re not running the investigations on the individual crimes.
I’m not thrilled that there’s C-4 floating around out there. If
Terryn doesn’t push them, I’m going to make Com-Lie take it whether
they want it or not.”
The Community Liaison Department was the
Guildhouse’s local law-enforcement arm, notorious for ignoring
crimes that had no political benefit to the Seelie Court. “I’m sure
they’ll do the right thing,” Cress said, a smile threatening the
corner of her mouth.
Her words dripped with doubt, and she knew Laura
would sense it. Laura responded with equal insincerity. “Now, now,
Cress, we’re all allies here.”
The abrupt vanishing of the smile surprised Laura.
“Yes, well, so we all hope,” Cress said.
The nuances of truth were muddled, something that
happened when Laura couldn’t sort the difference between hope and
belief—both of which someone might hold as true. She wondered if
Cress had heard about Rhys’s displeasure about her but hesitated
starting what might be a larger conversation than a simple
how-are-you.
“Everything okay?” Laura asked.
With no whites in Cress’s eyes, Laura found it hard
to read her expression, but there was no mistaking the sadness that
came over her. “Did you hear the news about Ian Whiting?”
Ian Whiting’s car had been found on the Key Bridge
that morning. All his personal effects were piled neatly on the
passenger seat. He’d left his shoes and a note on the railing of
the bridge. The scholar from the Druidic College had apparently
committed suicide. “Yes, I saw. I had a class with him a long time
ago. Did you know him?”
She closed her eyes. “He saved my life. No, that’s
not true. He gave me a life. Before I met Terryn, Ian helped
stabilize my abilities. I can’t imagine the man I remember killing
himself.”
Laura rested a comforting hand on her shoulder.
“That was a long time ago, Cress. People change. Not always for the
good.”
She shook her head. “I don’t think he’s dead. I
think he walked away from his life. Too many people wanted too many
things from him. That was true back when I met him. The man lived
for research. He valued life. Until they find his body, that’s what
I think.”
Laura hugged her. Cress didn’t respond—she wasn’t
physically comfortable with people—but she did allow herself to
hold Laura’s arm. “I’m sorry.”
“Me, too,” she said softly.
On the counter behind Cress, Laura caught sight of
a clear evidence bag with a handheld stun gun inside. She held the
bag up for a closer look. “What’s this?”
Cress returned her attention to her test tubes. “A
fortunately malfunctioning liquid stun gun. I was almost mugged
this morning.”
Laura gaped. “Mugged? Are you all right?”
Cress looked more amused than anything. “I’m fine.
Two guys came at me. One of them fired the stunner, but the liquid
didn’t release correctly, and he ended up stunning himself. The
other guy ran off. It was rather amusing, actually.”
“Did you report it?”
She shook her head. “I didn’t have time. Too much
to do here, and I didn’t want to lose half a day making the report.
I left him there looking stupid, but I took the gun.”
Laura placed the bag back on the counter. Liquid
stun guns were the weapon of choice for humans who preyed on the
fey. They shot a stream of liquid that carried the electrical
current to the target—highly beneficial when the target didn’t need
any gadget to shock someone. The trick was to take a fey unawares
and fire before he returned an essence-bolt.
“You need to be more careful, Cress. The fey aren’t
the most popular right now, and you make an easy target.”
Cress grinned. “Yes, well, I have my own defenses.
People may not like them, but they keep me out of trouble.”
Laura pushed away from the counter. “Terryn’s
debriefing Jono and me. Any chance we can catch up later?”
She didn’t answer right away, and again Laura
sensed turmoil. “I’d like that, Laura.”
Laura touched her on the arm. “You okay?”
Cress smiled, but Laura thought it looked feigned.
“I’m fine. We can talk later.”
Whatever was bothering her, her expression seemed
to indicate it wasn’t the mugging. Since Cress was willing to let
it wait, Laura gave her arm an affectionate squeeze.
The conference room held an oval table with chairs
facing a wall of television and video screens. The dim glow of a
flat-screen computer monitor illuminated the surface of the
tabletop in front of each seat. Local, national, and world news
played on the television screens. Laura scrolled through the
messages on her PDA while Sinclair leaned back and watched a
basketball game.
Terryn macCullen entered with a firm gait that
caused his long wings to arc sharply behind him. Inverni fairies’
wings tended to pale shades of blue and green and rose into points
high above their heads. The wings moved of their own accord,
shifting and separating as fairies sat or lay down, and their
energy fields came in contact with objects. Laura had glamoured
herself as a fairy in the past, but the wings she displayed were an
illusion. Terryn explained once that they acted like opposing
magnetic fields, automatically sensing physical surfaces and
barriers and moving accordingly. The closest he could describe
their sensitivity was somewhere between the acute touch of skin and
the dull sensation of hair.
Terryn dropped data drives on the table and plugged
one in. Laura adjusted the monitor in front of her, its privacy
screen rising out of the tabletop. Financial spreadsheets popped
open. “The financial data we pulled after the Archives incident
connects the Legacy Foundation to the Triad terrorist group,” he
said without preamble.
Laura recognized the earlier data. Triad was the
organization responsible for the terrorist attack on the National
Archives.
Despite a century of integration, the fey
engendered suspicion and fear among some human populations. No
one—fey or human—understood how parts of Faerie and its people
appeared in the modern world. Beings of myth and legend—fairies and
elves, druids and dwarves and a host of other fey—walked the world
trying to find their place in a strange new reality. Their innate
ability to manipulate essence set them apart. The elusive form of
energy that allowed the fey to perform tasks perceived as magic
scared the hell out of most humans. It didn’t help that there were,
in fact, fey groups like Triad that were taking more aggressive
means to further their political agendas.
Laura looked at Terryn from beneath her brow. “Rhys
brought them up this morning. They’re making noise about the
National Archives. If they’re connected with Triad, are you saying
they’re interested in more than harassing loyalists to the fey
monarchies?”
Sinclair cleared his throat. “We were at a murder
scene, Laura. That’s a bit more than harassment.”
She winced as she skimmed through documents.
“Right, Jono. Of course. I meant I was surprised about their
connection to Triad. That makes them more sophisticated than we’ve
thought. This looks like major money-laundering.”
Terryn shifted some documents on their screens.
“Legal, or as legal as it gets. Several of Legacy’s benefactors
contribute checks and anonymous cash donations. Again, all legal,
but the quantity raised suspicions that federal rules were being
circumvented, which triggered a review. It’s the source of those
funds we were able to match up with other intelligence. Genda Boone
has pulled together a framework of the players involved.”
As Mariel Tate, Laura shared an office suite with
Genda, a Danann fairy who specialized in financial analysis. The
two had formed an easy friendship although Genda wasn’t aware that
Mariel was a glamoured persona.
“So, in addition to weapons-smuggling, we’re
looking at an organization that has a political motivation to use
the weapons,” said Sinclair.
Terryn shifted new documents to the front of the
displays. An organizational chart appeared. “Their professed goal
is unity among human and fey without a monarchy.”
Laura scanned the chart, recognizing a few
high-profile politicians and businessmen. “Odd goals for a place
with so many anti-fey people on its board.”
The organization chart shrank as Terryn expanded
the template to include more people. “We’ve found connections to a
sort of shadow board of directors. Peeling back the corporate
layers, we start to see interesting contradictions and
oddities.”
Laura recognized several names either from high
public profiles or internal research—a group of unsurprising
businesspeople, some politicians, and a few notable military
personnel. Then things got interesting.
“Is this right? These look like fey names now,”
said Laura.
Terryn nodded. “They’re separated by several
layers, but that’s right.”
“That would fit the unity thing,” said
Sinclair.
Laura examined the names. She recognized some,
including Tylo Blume, an important businessman among the elven
tribes. He was also a legal arms merchant and sometime
philanthropist. “Blume’s showing up bothers me.”
“Maybe not so surprising, considering that our
corresponding intelligence is from his Triad corporation,” said
Terryn.
Blume had had a falling-out with a former Triad
partner named Simon Alfrey, an Inverni fairy—and political rival to
Terryn—who had been responsible for the recent terrorist attack at
the National Archives. Despite claims of innocence, Laura was
deeply suspicious of how much Blume knew about Alfrey’s
plans.
“The Archives incident would be precisely the kind
of thing this group fights against, wouldn’t it?” asked Sinclair.
“If Blume’s in this group, then he’s been telling the truth that he
had no idea Triad was involved at the Archives.”
Laura rocked her head from side to side. “It could
be a blind to cover his activities. Or he could have staged the
event to drum up support for Legacy.”
Sinclair snorted. “Wow. That’s pretty
cynical.”
Terryn didn’t change his expression as he reviewed
the documents in front of him. “At InterSec, we examine every
angle. We don’t have the luxury of trust.”
Sinclair frowned. “So people are guilty until
proved innocent?”
Terryn did not look up. “Circumstances are
evaluated for all contingencies. InterSec discards them as it
discredits them, Agent Sinclair. If you can’t be thorough, I can
find you a desk job.”
Sinclair rocked back on his chair. “Hey, we’re
buds. Call me Jono. Maybe later we can go hang out and have a few
beers.”
Laura didn’t look up as she felt the flash of anger
from Terryn. She was going to have to talk Sinclair. Terryn was the
wrong person to taunt. “I think what Terryn’s saying is that we try
to be as objective and analytical as possible.”
Terryn shifted more documents onto the screen. “I
think Terryn said exactly what he meant.”
Startled, Laura did look then. Terryn maintained
his focus on the information in front of him. He was never short
with her. In fact, it was so out of character, it took her a moment
to realize her jaw had dropped in reaction—an emotional display
that was out of character for her. She closed her mouth and glanced
at Sinclair. He shifted his eyes away before they made contact.
Embarrassed, Laura cleared her throat. “Of course.”
Terryn wasn’t known for his sense of humor. His
expression was subtle, but his message was clear. Laura’s decision
to bring Sinclair into the agency did not sit well with him. He
tapped his screen. “We’re getting some chatter that Legacy may be
connected to the recent attacks on fey businesses. There are also
indications that they are going to target Draigen for some type of
political action when she arrives. I want inside
information.”
Laura sensed the emotion beneath the way he said
her name. Terryn was heir to the rule of the Inverni clan. Because
of political intricacies she didn’t fully understand, he had
refused the underKing title to spite High Queen Maeve and appointed
his sister Draigen as regent. Her arrival in Washington had to be
causing all kinds of conflicts for him, both personal and
professional.
She assessed the workup in front of her. “Draigen’s
going to be here soon. We’ve got Jono in with Legacy’s weapons
people, but that’s not the part of the hierarchy responsible for
strategic planning. We should have done an infiltration higher up
in the organization sooner than this.”
Terryn seemed distracted as he reviewed the files.
“We need to go in now. With the connections between Legacy and the
fey attacks, I’m concerned Draigen might be in their sights. We’re
going to go with a hard insertion.”
Sinclair arched an eyebrow. “I’m not sure what you
mean, but it sounds fun.”
Laura bit back a smile while Terryn shot him an
annoyed look. A woman’s picture popped onto their screens. “This is
Allison Forth. She’s in the U.S. illegally, using Fallon Moor as an
assumed name. She is wanted in Ireland for participating in a
Dublin bombing. As Fallon Moor, she has a nebulous administrative
title at Legacy.”
“Okay, I’ll bite. What’s a hard insertion?”
Sinclair asked.
Laura examined the image. Moor was a brownie, a
race of fey that usually allied with the Seelie Court. Brownies
tended to prefer lives of orderliness and cooperation. When
something happened to disrupt their plans, they transformed into
boggarts, the maniacal version of their normal selves that could be
dangerous. The transformation was a mania in which their
rationality slipped away until they could restore balance in their
lives again. Moor’s pleasant face belied the list of crimes that
scrolled up next to it. Laura was already thinking of ways to
create a persona template of the woman. “We bring Moor in, get her
to cooperate, and I take her place at Legacy.”
“Sounds like that could go bad very easily,” he
said.
“That’s why we call it hard,” she said.
Sinclair leaned back in his chair again and crossed
his arms. “What’s our authorization for all this?”
“I’m authorizing it,” said Terryn.
Sinclair tilted his head, a curious expression on
his face. “Look, I’m undercover on your word only, macCullen. Some
of this stuff sounds against the law. I don’t know how you did
things in Ireland, but people have rights here, including to their
political opinions.”
Without a word, Terryn pulled up more
documents—police reports, individual criminal records, Web site
snapshots. Sinclair became quiet. “Not if they cross the line into
subversion. When that happens, it falls within InterSec’s
jurisdiction. I believe, Agent Sinclair, you will note the
connections between Legacy rank and file and the recent attacks on
fey businesses.”
Sinclair grunted in reluctant acknowledgment.
Terryn lifted his gaze and settled his deep green eyes on Sinclair.
Terryn was an Old One and could turn his deep gaze into a
formidable weapon of intimidation. Facing someone who had seen
centuries pass, kingdoms rise and fall, and deaths uncounted was a
humbling experience.
Laura’s second surprise of the meeting was watching
Sinclair meet that look without flinching. For a moment, she
thought Sinclair was going to argue with him, but instead he
wrinkled his brow and returned to the screen in front of him.
“The documents are on your email, Agent Sinclair.
Feel free to review them and see if they meet your legal concerns.
We can discuss any questions you have later. You’re dismissed,”
Terryn said.
Sinclair stood, not quite smirking, and muttered as
he left the room. “Maybe in your mind.”
His parting glance at Laura told her there was
probably going to be more than one discussion later. Laura stared
down at the table, gloom settling over her.
“He’s going to be a problem,” Terryn said.
She didn’t look up. “It’s all new to him, Terryn.
I’ll talk to him.”
“If he can’t get on board with the job, we’ll have
to find another solution,” he said.
She didn’t want to think about another solution.
Despite Terryn’s initial threats of incarceration, there were worse
situations than a cell. InterSec had outposts in some of the most
desolate places in the world. “I know. Give me some time.”
Terryn gathered his folders. “Things are moving
quickly, Laura. Time isn’t something we have.”
He left. Perplexed at his uncharacteristic
abruptness, Laura slowly spun her chair around and stared down the
empty hallway.