Page 27

CHAPTER 27 - PASCAL

B arely a minute into Astra’s first day back on duty, and she yawned, slouching in her computer chair. To be fair, we exhausted her last night, and she almost fell asleep in Knoxe’s arms when he carried her to the shower. At breakfast, she looked like she could do with another few hours’ sleep to recover.

I reached over, clasping her spare hand, setting it on my knee, enjoying the weight and warmth of it. That, and I practiced acclimatizing myself to longer stints of human connection.

Knoxe clicked buttons on his keyboard, calling up data from various logs on the Watch Tower’s large screen. While my Songbird was with Raze, the three of us spent hours combing through the files provided by the thief avatar, piecing it together. Burying ourselves in that task took the edge off from being away from her.

Loco and Serena took over for us the last three days, analyzing patterns in the phone calls, which they graphed and displayed on the screen at the side of the room.

While it was hard for me to break routine, filling in Songbird’s void of missing Raze stole most of my attention, and I barely noticed the lack of training or research that filled my standard days.

Ben stood in the corner, guarding the entry door for anyone patrolling the corridors, giving us a low whistle when units came past, and Serena called up a different graph as a disguise.

Afterward, she switched back to charts displayed of the data showing phone calls and text locations used by the fugitives and others involved behind the scenes in the breakout. Mads didn’t make our task easy by clearly mapping out the information in a legible report, and we had our work cut out for us, painstakingly examining patterns we eventually fit together. We knew from now on that if we dealt with the tricky thief avatar to be very specific with what we needed to avoid his mischievous ways.

“You can see a clear pattern of calls made to five locations across sixteen phones.” Serena’s finger traced the line graph. “Five phones belong to Guild Councilors, who we believe supplied the vampires with Guardian’s weapons and coordinated the breakout of prisoners and release of dangerous gantii captives.” She paused to let that information set in. “This supports recent evidence obtained by my son, Cole, when they arrested Guild traitors.”

“Bastards!” Astra ground her teeth.

I wish I didn’t have to wear this damn magick suppression bracelet. Without it, I couldn’t read emotions as well and was forced to rely on the subtle clues I learned in sessions with Dr. Anders. Since the warden cuffed me with the damn thing, the doctor held extra sessions for me, and said I improved twenty-percent from my last test.

“There are always good guys who turn to the dark side,” Tor added, coming at it from the superhero standpoint. He also had firsthand experience of paying off sentries to turn a blind eye to the sale of his contraband or slipping them siren porn for favors. To be fair, they were paid shit wages for what they dealt with in here on a regular basis. And many were fly in, fly out, doing shifts far away from their families.

“Not surprised one iota,” Loco muttered, Serena reinforcing his statement with a nod.

According to a private conversation with Knoxe, our team leader and second-in-command they had history with some of the players we uncovered and sought vindication to clear their names and vengeance for breaking up their families.

Discovering the betrayal hit me hard when I’d been raised to respect authority and not question it. Roots that untangled over the years, thanks to my experience in the military, where they court-martialed me for defending myself against two officers trying to kill me in my sleep, and they were praised as heroes and awarded posthumous medals. Yet my army career was over from that point on.

What little respect I had for authority crumbled when we uncovered Guild members worked in tandem to release over fifty deadly prisoners and led to my near-death experience, and the kidnapping of my girlfriend and brother, Raze. The other three officials were involved in another operation, but we pushed that aside to focus on those directly associated with the fugitives.

“How does this data correlate to what we extracted from James’ phone?” Knoxe asked before throwing back the last of his coffee and getting up to replenish his empty mug.

“There are several crossovers of numbers, which confirms the validity of the thief avatar’s data.” Serena brought up a spreadsheet of phone call records showing dates and GPS coordinates of call locations.

Knoxe took his seat, the hinges squeaking under his weight, making me flinch. “And they’re connected to crooks we’ve been tracking?”

“They are.” Serena switched to another table that displayed the numbers of Mads’ data compared with info that Cole slipped Tor.

“I shared this information with Cole,” Tor informed us, flashing an orange USB. “And he gave me what his team collected to cross-check with ours.”

Data that normally would have taken us months to obtain and comb through. Thank you, Mads.

What I interpreted as a proud smile slid across Serena’s face. “This is truly fantastic work, team. I can use these phone numbers and locations in my report to the warden seeking immediate investigation of these coordinates.”

I felt lost without my music to read the room, but this confirmed I didn’t need to rely on it so heavily, my sessions with Dr. Anders paying off.

“Obvious question here,” Astra said, nursing her drink. “But if we’re up against corrupt Guild officials, it goes without saying that we’re potentially walking into a trap.”

Serena rested her mug at her desk. “Most likely, yes, but it’s a risk we must take for the reward. Are you in?”

“I want those assholes, Devon and Eduardo, locked away for life for hurting my girl,” Knoxe growled.

“Here, here,” Tor concurred.

“Me too,” Songbird added.

“You know I’m in,” Loco set his vote. “I just wish I got to tear both of their balls off.”

That left me. Not that I’d be the deciding factor. I put my life at risk when we went out on our last mission. I wasn’t too proud to admit that anxiety scraped at the back of my mind. The logical side of me recognized this was the only avenue to get this damn band off my wrist and leave the Guardians. Pressure welled at the back of my head in need for my connection to the music to ease my angst.

I lifted my gaze to Serena’s. “When do we leave?”

She smiled and patted me on the shoulder. “I’ll go and get us clearance. You four stay here and see what else you can pull from the data that might serve us.”

“Yes, ma’am.” Tor saluted her and got to work, clacking on his keyboard, bringing up the encrypted spreadsheet of data Knoxe assigned him, his superhero boots well and truly on.

Knoxe swung around to his screen and dove in.

“What do you want me to do?” Astra kicked her legs, unsure what to tackle, since she didn’t take part in this investigation.

“Help me.” I grabbed the back of her chair and rolled her closer to me, needing her to lower my mounting anxiety.

She brushed the side of my face, and tingles skittered across my skin. “You held my hand for almost thirty minutes and didn’t flinch.”

“I did?” I checked the time on the computer. “I beat my record!”

I did better than I gave myself credit for.

She leaned over and kissed my cheek.

I pulled back, whispering, “Not in front of your dad.”

She mouthed the word “Oops” and pretended to be on her best behavior, putting her hand in her own lap. Every nerve in me begged to take it and set it on my thigh, and I reached across, holding her, loving her softness.

Loco glared at me from across the opposite side of the bench. I knew that expression well since many prisoners wore it like a badge of honor. My fingers snapped off Astra and minded their own business.

Loco’s eyes lost their “murderous gleam,” as Tor called it. “What did you do for the thief bozo in exchange for getting this dirt on our enemies?”

Tor wheeled over to him and placed a hand over his mouth. “Shh, Dad. Don’t go throwing around words like that about our god.”

Loco bit his hand, and Tor released him, shaking his hand.

“Dad!” Astra scolded her father.

“Go easy, Dad.” Tor rolled to the first aid kit in the wall mount on the corner. “I was just trying to prevent you from getting smote.”

Loco barked out a laugh. “If the gods wanted me dead, I’d be long gone.”

Knoxe strode over, retrieving the kit for Tor, dropping it on his lap.

“Your funeral, Dad.” Tor rinsed his hand as if he feared getting rabies or something from the rabid Loco.

Knoxe gave Loco the answer he sought. “I cut a deal with Mads, and that’s all you need to know.”

Loco managed to twirl the handle of his cup on his finger the way he would a knife. “I need to know if my daughter and I are going down because of it.”

“You’re good.” That was all Knoxe gave him, and everyone got busy. “I’ll take any heat.”

Loco picked up Cole’s orange USB from Tor’s computer and twisted it. “I’d feel a hell of a lot better with this protected from Vancor. If he finds out we have this, he’ll have us killed in our sleep. Game over.”

“We’ve got that covered.” Knoxe kept the exact details a secret to protect everyone. “This isn’t our first rodeo.”

Loco leaned forward, his eyes adopting their murderous gleam once again. “If it gets discovered, I’ll end you before the warden does.”

I twitched in my seat. I didn’t understand why Loco had a problem, now of all times. Maybe I set him off by holding his daughter’s hand. Whatever the reason, it should have been sorted when Knoxe gave Serena the USB.

“Dad! I thought you made peace with them!” Astra shot out of her seat, snatched the USB and gave it to Knoxe, then grabbed the lip of her father’s chair, rolled him into the corner with his back facing us. “That’s it! You’re on a timeout until you take that back.”

He tried to climb from his chair, but she shoved his shoulders down. “You listen here, kiddo.”

Tor blew out a breath, raised both arms and linked his palms behind his neck, clearly enjoying the show. Knoxe thumped him in the stomach, but that didn’t stop him.

She raised one palm in a stop gesture. “I’m an adult now and I trust Knoxe with my life. He’s saved me countless times, and I’m asking for you to trust him too.”

The echo of a formidable melody swept through my chest at my Songbird asserting herself. On her return to her seat, I took her hand, planting it on my lap, proud to call her mine. The melody was gone as soon as it came, and as much as I longed for more, I didn’t need it because I had her.

Loco swiveled his chair and offered a subdued repentance. “I’m sorry, Knoxe. Things are a little tense. I don’t trust these assholes when they locked me up for ten years and stopped me from seeing my wife and baby girls. There’s no room for error. I want to get back to my family for Christmas.”

That made sense. We were all on edge, worried Vancor would uncover our secret investigations, exposing his vested interests, and have us stabbed in a hall with a blind spot on the cameras.

“I understand, sir.” Knoxe slipped the device in his breast pocket. “My team is my family, and I won’t jeopardize them. Ever .”

“Make sure of it, son.” Loco got up, crossed to Knoxe and patted him on the shoulder. For good measure, he thrust out his hand, and Knoxe accepted it, shaking on it.

I wasn’t ready for that kind of exchange yet when Loco and I had worked with each other for a couple of months. It took me equally long to accustom myself to having Songbird on the team. When she sat at my dinner table and spoke with me and stood up for me against the prison’s bullies, it broke down a wall between us and established a flicker of trust that strengthened by the day. She took the time to get to know me beyond professional obligations, and I felt comfortable opening up to her.

Circumstances were different with Loco and Serena when they stuck together like they were a separate pack, merged with our team and forced to work together. A team by duty only. That said, I spent much of my energy on trusting my new leader when change wasn’t easy for me.

Loco needed to cross the bridge and come to the party. He took the first step by asking for a personal introduction the other day. The ball was in his court for whatever kind of relationship he wanted to forge long-term.

Still, I gave him credit for being the bigger man. Time would tell what kind of man he was to me, his daughter, and the team.

* * *

Serena’s boots crept silently along the tunnel’s dusty floor. Our leader declared a strict no-lights policy and we relied on dim halogens that were better off in the sixties. By her dark outline against a backdrop of concrete, old wires, pipework, and bricks, she took prime position at the front. Loco taking up the rear wedged me between them when I lacked my magick to go on the offensive if we needed it.

I scratched at the bracelet on my wrist, the weight of it burdensome, the material burning me. I felt vulnerable without my magick to protect or defend me as Knoxe trained me to rely on for almost four years.

Loco tapped me on the shoulder and warned me to keep the aim of my stun gun trained over Serena’s shoulder to protect her. I bit back the fire I felt to my bones to sharpen my mind on the target.

Urgency mounted in the back of my skull to get it off me forever. Panic for my safety. Pressure to expel my power. A base need to protect my family and girlfriend. I felt helpless and useless on missions without my magick. Nervous even at Tor’s prediction that the warden painted a target on my back.

Spellwork learned at the Academy taught me the fundamentals of harnessing Veil energy to defend myself and volley offenses back if required. Nothing felt as natural as harnessing the sound frequencies of the Earth when I knew them in and out. Still, I battled on, moving in line with my leader and second-in-command.

Songbird was teamed with Knoxe and Tor, and they came at the tunnel from the opposite direction.

Historical tunnels existed below many cities and towns, some used for transporting gold, others used for telecommunications cabling, sewer systems, old underground transport, and criminal activities like bootlegging. Mads’ reports indicated multiple calls were made from this particular tunnel on different dates, and the lack of change in location—shown in other calls on the burner phone we took from James’ caravan—brought us to the conclusion that this was some sort of base for the fugitives or the traitorous officials supporting them.

Scrapes, grunts, and the sound of a radio up ahead sent my body into high alert. They were here, all right. Armed and dangerous, no doubt. Without my magick, we couldn’t get a sonar picture of the number of potential people we were about to encounter.

“Anybody got any smokes?” one grunt asked, his voice traveling through an air duct to our left.

Serena motioned for us to keep low and quiet.

“You keep bumming them off me and haven’t paid me back.” Another grunt, the nasally sound of his voice banging in my ears.

“It’s not like I can surface and grab another pack, asshole.” Grunt One.

“Here. This is your last one.” Grunt Two.

I squeezed and lifted my gun higher, ignoring the blistering heat in my wrists. Wariness burrowed under my skin that we might be walking into a trap. One way or another, this was going to end today.