Page 67

“Yeah.” He wrinkled his nose. “It’s a bit of a hike to get back to the city from there, and to be honest, given everything that’s happened, it’s probably also safer.”

The light elf encampment lay to the east of Deva and was in truth only twenty minutes away in good traffic. But I totally understood his sudden need for caution.

“Cynwrig offered to drive over and pick us up,” I said. “I told him we were staying the night and that it was probably safer if we lay low for a couple of days.”

“So they’re both alive?”

I nodded. “The cushions of air I sent chasing after them worked, apparently.”

“Good.” He slid a cup of tea across the table to me then sat down with his own and opened the pizza box. “If wearelaying low, we’ll need to replace our phones and grab a computer as a matter of priority. I’ll need to be able to access my search results and files.”

“Will that be safe, given the likelihood someone at the museum is working for the enemy?”

“Should be. No one else has access to my files—”

“Passwords are easy enough to crack these days.”

“They won’t be cracking mine easily, and I routinely change them anyway.”

“What about Rogan? You’re going to have to explain why you’ll be absent from the office again.”

“Yes.” He paused. “It might actually give us an opportunity to confirm whether or not Rogan’s office has been bugged.”

“Or whether Rogan himself is involved.” I hesitated, remembering what Eljin had said. “Do you know if Rogan has ever lost someone close to him?”

“If I have no idea what his current status is, relationship-wise, I’d hardly know something like that.” He raised an eyebrow. “Why do you ask?”

“Apparently Eljin has a psi talent that allows him to emotionally read people. He said there’s a great sadness in Rogan, and that it was a result of a loss that happened a long time ago.”

Lugh shrugged. “It would certainly explain his reluctance to get emotionally involved with anyone else now, but I can’t see how it would connect to our current situation.”

“Could it have made him a target? Could the Looisearch be manipulating his loss to aid their cause? Or blackmailing him, even?”

“I guess if he was somehow responsible for the death of the person he lost, the latter is a definite possibility.” He picked up another slice of pizza and bit into it. “It’s certainly an angle worth researching.”

“And here’s another.” I retrieved my phone from my pocket and turned the thing on. The low battery warning came up, but all I needed it to do was bring up the photos I’d taken at Aram’s place. They were easy enough to find, given they were the last things I’d photographed, but the state of the screen made for difficult viewing. I handed the phone to Lugh and added, “We found this photo when we found Aram’s body. There’s a date and a series of numbers on the back—any idea what the latter might be?”

He squinted at the screen, moving it around in an attempt to find a better view through the myriad of cracks.

“It’s too long to be a phone number.” He changed the angle of the phone again. “It could possibly be a location coordinate though. Write these numbers down.”

“Hang on.” I walked over to the bedside table and grabbed the pen sitting next to the phone. “Right, go.”

He reeled off a series of numbers. I jotted them down, then tore off the sheet of paper and walked back, handing it to him. “We’re going to need working phones to do a search.”

He nodded. “We’ll head out tomorrow and grab everything we need, including a hire car. Did you tell Sgott about the photo?”

“Yes, and we gave it to the IIT. Mathi said he was going to investigate the date and see if there was anything significant about it.”

He nodded. “It’s not ringing any bells with me, but it’s more than possible I was on a hunt. I tend not to take too much notice of the news when I am.”

“You tend not to take notice of anything,” I said dryly. “Even calls from your mother and only sister.”

“Thatis a lie. I always called back.”

“Usually days or weeks later.”

“That does not moot my point.”