Page 49

“Oh, it’s you,” Firth sneered as he walked in.

“Yes, still here,” I said dryly.

He took a seat at the conference table farthest from everyone else, and proceeded to ignore me. “Director?”

“Thank you for coming, Doctor,” Marlow said from where she stood by her desk. “We have a tier-one emergency.”

Firth stiffened. “What’s happened?”

“Federal SPAR Oversight received a tip-off that a bomb has been placed in New Providence, scheduled to go off this Friday at eight P.M.”

Firth met this news with stony silence. “FSO?” he said at last. “That is … unusual.”

“Nevertheless, the threat is real.”

He rested his hands on the table and straightened his posture. “Director, you have my full confidence, of course, but I must inquire why this meeting is being held in the presence of … civilians. ”

“Apparently, FSO sent Xan the alert instead of me. A misinterpretation of his job title. As I understand it, they thought he was working with the celestials.” She pressed her lips together in disapproval, flicking her eyes briefly to Iyoni. It was artfully done.

“Bureaucrats. They can’t even get bureaucracy right.” Firth shook his head. “I assume that explains the report I just received on the state of the third-floor office, but we need calm heads in a crisis, Director. Not someone who snaps and smashes desks through glass panels.”

“I couldn’t agree more, Doctor,” Marlow said. “Which is why I’m tasking you to head up the bomb search, while Xan will take over the mole hunt.”

I looked up. “I will?”

“I must protest, Director,” Firth said. “This is my department.”

“You can’t be in two places at once, Doctor, and finding the bomb is the priority. However, we can’t overlook the probability of a mole, and so Xan will take over. Please furnish him with a summary of your progress as soon as possible.”

Firth clenched one fist on the table. “Very well. I agree the tier-one takes precedence. Is the source credible?”

“I’m led to believe the source is extremely credible,” Marlow replied, “which is why this is being given the highest priority.”

“I assume FSO has already established interagency cooperation with NPPD?”

Marlow hesitated, but recovered swiftly. “I wouldn’t be sure. This is hot off the wires, so you may need to take the lead on that. Pull together a task force and seek whatever support you need. I’ll sign it off.”

“What do we have to go on?”

“Nothing,” Marlow said grimly. “Just the scheduled time of detonation.”

“Nothing?” Firth echoed in surprise. “No voice patterns? No target information? No network, no source?”

“You know what we know,” Marlow said. “I appreciate the size of the task.”

“Is the bomb in position?”

“We don’t know that either.”

Firth rubbed his hand over his face. “Three days to secure interagency coordination, assemble analysts, draw up a preliminary list of potential targets and triage.” He looked down at the table as he thought.

“We’ll need multiple teams, sniffer dogs, specialists, bomb disposal on standby.

” He huffed out a breath. “It’s a needle in a haystack, Director, and if the bomb isn’t even in position yet, we could cross off the intended target only for it to be placed after we’ve left. ”

“I’m aware, Doctor. Do the best you can.”

“Right,” he said, in the tone of a man looking at a future without much sleep. He stood up. “I’d better get to it.”

“Good luck, Doctor,” I said.

He spared me a glance. “Thanks,” he said flatly, then left the room.

Marlow clasped her hands behind her back and waited for the sound of his footsteps to recede. “That went better than I expected,” she said quietly.

“A good lie is ninety percent truth delivered with just the right touch of innocence. You delivered it well.” I paused. “You want me to take over Firth’s investigation?”

“If Moreau has men inside SPAR, finding one may be our best chance of getting a lead on the bomb,” Marlow said wearily. “Make it the top priority.”

“I don’t know the first thing about hunting for a mole.”

“Get Captain Reyes to help you,” Marlow replied like that settled it, and sank into her desk chair. “Once again, I find myself wishing you’d stop adding work to my plate, but I suppose you can’t wholly be blamed for this one.”

She turned her focus to her monitor, and I knew a dismissal when I saw one. I stood up and went for the door, holding it for Kara and Iyoni, then gave Marlow a last glance. She didn’t look up.

“We should be helping with the bomb,” Kara said as soon as the door closed behind us.

“Talk about that later,” I said quietly as Marlow’s PA raised her head in alarm.

Kara looked momentarily guilty and said no more, instead pulling my phone from her pocket. “I picked this up for you, when it … fell off your desk.”

The screen was cracked, but it was still operational. “Thanks,” I said, tucking it away. I wondered what the chances were that Moreau would call me again during the week, and maybe let slip a hint that could help us. “Let’s head down to Field Ops and find Reyes.”

We headed for the elevators.

“I don’t disagree with you,” I told Kara as the doors closed and I punched the button for the ground floor, “but there’s not much we can do other than join one of the teams and help search buildings. It’s better we leave it to Firth.”

“I suppose,” she admitted. “I just hate standing around doing nothing.”

“We won’t be,” I said firmly.

The lift descended swiftly, giving us a view through its glass windows of the Nexus below. I stared out, thinking, and when we left the elevator, I pulled the ladies aside.

Checking no one was in earshot, I spoke quietly. “Marlow’s given me an opportunity here. I may not know the first thing about uncovering moles, but I do know that Dacien’s warehouses are being targeted—and he’s given me until the end of the week to find a solution.”

I grimaced, as everything was rapidly heading toward a Friday deadline. “We let Reyes chase down Moreau’s mole, while we follow the warehouse raids and see if we can find whoever’s sabotaging Dacien.”

“That won’t help find the bomb,” Iyoni said.

“I know,” I replied, “and I’m not too happy about that. But do you have any interrogation skills in that back catalogue of yours?”

She shook her head. “Want someone judged? I’m your girl. Proving their guilt? Not my area.”

“What about you?” I asked Kara.

“I think you’re right,” she said thoughtfully. “We’ll probably just get in Reyes’ way, and I don’t want my father’s threat hanging over you on top of everything else. We should use this chance to affect the problems we can affect, and let SPAR do what SPAR needs to do.”

“And if you find someone?” Iyoni asked. “Will you give him to Dacien?”

“I’m not thinking about that right now,” I replied, knowing I’d have to soon enough.

“It’ll depend on what we find. The why, as well as the who.

” I paused. “With any luck, we can find the agent in question, lean on them to get their source, and give Dacien the name of whoever has betrayed him. It might be enough to avoid handing the agent over. That sits better with me. Dacien will just have to accept it.”

“Think he will?” Kara asked.

I shrugged, saying nothing. There was no way to know until we got to that point.

Iyoni nodded. “Fair enough. Maybe, along the way, we’ll turn up something that will help Reyes—or at least stir the grass enough to make his job easier.”

“That’s my thinking,” I agreed. I looked at Kara. “I know you said Moreau might be one of your father’s clients, but if Moreau’s mole and Dacien’s saboteur are the same person, we might get lucky—find whoever’s working against your father, maybe get a lead to the bomb.”

“Moreau’s powerful,” Kara replied. “If he’s after my father, for whatever reason …” She took a breath. “I don’t like him, but he is still my father. If we can warn him—before it’s too late—that would mean a lot to me.”

“Then let’s get to it.”

We headed over to Containment, and I badged us in.

The Containment wing was one of the largest sections of SPAR HQ, sprawling out to house the vehicle bays and response teams on its upper levels.

Buried deep below were the detention blocks—SPAR’s own prison, reserved for the kind of inmates who couldn’t be trusted with daylight or fresh air.

“Where would I find Captain Reyes?” I asked the receptionist.

She checked a schedule on her computer. “He’s on the range with some of his supes, Assistant Director.”

“Where’s that?”

“Sublevel One, sir. You’ll need to use our elevators.” She pointed across the way.

“Thanks.”

Sublevel One had the cold, utilitarian feel of a space built for function, not comfort.

The overhead lights hummed faintly, casting a harsh white wash over concrete walls and steel-reinforced doors.

The scent of disinfectant clung to the recycled air, mingling with engine oil from the adjacent motor pool.

Finding the range was easy—we followed the explosions.

Beyond a reinforced glass barrier, Reyes watched his team move through live-fire drills, their movements brisk and precise. Figure-sized targets dropped from the ceiling or shot up from the floor, some half-concealed by large metal blocks, scarred by years of spell fire.

“That looks like fun,” Iyoni said.

I recognized the hydro, Banner, and Farron, all of whom had been with us at the docks. The dryad was there too, shooting vines out with unerring accuracy. They unwrapped from her body to lash into the closest targets, before snaking back around her.

“She’s hot,” Iyoni commented, also watching the dryad. Every time she used her vines, it revealed swathes of pale green skin, and she wasn’t wearing much beneath.

I raised an eyebrow at my celestial, who shrugged.

“A girl can enjoy the view, can’t she?”

I couldn’t argue that.

We watched them finish the course. Or I watched them finished the course, and Iyoni watched the dryad.

“You’d be disappointed if she had any other moves,” I said.

“Why would she have other moves?” Iyoni asked, a frown creasing her brow.