by Cathy Clamp
She was turning into quite the little spy. My smile turned to a grin as she continued. “Anyway, I had Will call the architect, speaking Spanish, and asked to have another set of the prints sent over to the site. He said he tried to sound really annoyed and told them that some idiot got the plans too close to a cutting torch or welder or something. Anyway, they burned up and they needed another set immediately. Then he changed forms and flew down to Jersey and waited outside the architect’s office for the delivery boy to come out. He followed him for a few blocks until he was alone and froze him and took the prints. Did you know that Will can do magical persuasion? He made the poor delivery guy remember he’d delivered the package, so nobody’s even going to call to check! Well, until they get a bill for them next month, and we’ll be done by then.”
We’ll be done by then. I smiled again. Well, she’d sort of earned a piece of the action. But I’d still try to give her something to do that wouldn’t put her in direct danger.
“Then Will gave them to me when my flight arrived in New York and I brought them down.”
I looked up at her with a small amount of reality. “You do realize Lucas isn’t going to be pleased about this, right? I don’t know that he’ll hurt you physically like he would one of us, but you could lose your job for overstepping your authority.”
She nodded and looked contrite. “Yeah, I know. But it’s looking more and more like he really will need them. If everything you and Ahmad found plays out, that is.”
It was a lot of ifs, but I wasn’t arguing that the plans were going to come in handy. I shook my head again. “I’m going to have to start calling you Nora if you keep this up.”
She smiled. “Only if I get to call you Nick.” She leaned over and gave me a quick kiss. “But I like Tony better.”
The room phone rang just then and I figured it was probably Lucas. We’ve been playing phone tag since he left the message on my cell out by the lake. But it wasn’t. “This is the front desk. There’s a FedEx delivery at the front desk for Mrs. Giambrocco. I’m afraid it got put in the storeroom by mistake earlier. Shall I have a bellman bring it up now or in the morning?”
I raised my brows and covered the handset. “Are you expecting a FedEx?”
Her face brightened. “Oh! Yes. Have them bring it up.” I repeated the instructions and when I hung up, she went to get her purse for a tip. “This is surprise number two. I couldn’t bring it on the plane, so I had it shipped same-day air.”
My little cough was automatic. For the price of same-day air, you could buy the package its own airline seat. In fact, that’s exactly what you were doing. But the knock on the door didn’t give me a chance to ask the obvious question of what the hell did you have delivered? The question mark in my head was even bigger when I opened the door. The package was huge, as tall as the doorway and probably two feet across. But the bellhop didn’t appear to struggle with it, so it must not be heavy. Sue inched past me as I took the box from him and gave him a fiver.
“Put it on the couch. It’ll be out of the way there.” I did as instructed, but felt more cat than wolf right then, wondering what Sue was up to.
“Should I open it?” I pulled out a pocketknife and looked at her questioningly. She nodded with a sly smile on her face, so I sliced.
Oh, baby! Inside the box, wrapped in tissue and surrounded by poofy sheets of bubble wrap were two big honking swords! “Whoa, nelly. What are these for?”
She shrugged. “Snakes, mostly. You said Carmine insisted on a blade, and these belonged to Lucas and Jack, from way back when they ran Wolven together. I found them totally by accident, wrapped in an old bed-sheet behind some filing cabinets when we were cleaning out the Paris office. I had them shipped to our place in Chicago, because that’s where the last spider was found. I thought Nikoli might end up needing them. But we need them more right now as far as I’m concerned. Nobody even knows they’re missing, so if something happens to one it’s no big deal.”
I picked up the smaller of the two. It had a two-foot-long double-edged Damascus blade, and from the sting I got when I ran a light finger over the patterns, I was betting there was a high silver content hammered in during the creation. The pommel guard was worn and beat all to hell, meaning it had seen a lot of action in its day. The hilt was bound with leather strips, well stained with both sweat and blood. It’s hard to beat a weapon that’s seen this much action. I really liked the feel of it in my hand. I couldn’t help but swing it around a few times, feeling the perfect balance of it slicing the air.
The lights went out and while I was still swinging a sword, it suddenly wasn’t a sword. It was a machete. Okay, I was starting to figure this out. Apparently, I was going to connect to Ahmad every time we did something at the same time. Well that was annoying.
But there was no helping it, because the room dissolved. I just had time to toss the sword aside before I collapsed to the carpeting. Then I was cutting apart another of the bags I found stashed in the corner of the metal building farthest from the camp. The room was still filled with glass vials and burners, even though most of whatever had been made here was gone. I dipped a test tube into the hideous-smelling chemical mixture and put a stopper in it, making sure I kept my glove-covered hands from touching any skin. Tony had been right. This wasn’t ordinary street drugs. But what it was and what it was for would have to be decided by another.
“What are you doing in here, Ahmad?”
I didn’t stop opening packages, just in case they were different substances. Each of the sample bags had a different label and I dutifully marked each tube with a marker from the table. “Exactly what it looks like, Nasil. I’m taking back samples of the lab product.” I turned to look at him, my grip tightening on the hilt of the machete even though I gave no sign of alarm in my scent or on my face. “I would think you’d be just as interested in making sure the quality is kept up to par. After all, if they’re lying to you about one thing, why not another?’ I paused and then gave him a look that made it seem like I already knew the answer. “Exactly how many people has it been tested on?”
The split-second look of surprise was quickly washed away in his usual disdain. “Only the ones absolutely necessary.”
I shook my head and turned back to my work. “I grow tired of you, Nasil. Perhaps Paolo will be more cooperative. We have the same goal after all.” I paused, but didn’t look his way. It was time to try a bluff, just to see what happened. “Or do we? Why Angelique? Why risk giving her the drug when it could bring down the entire council on our heads?”
It was the right thing to ask. He sighed and started pulling more sample bags from other hidden locations that I hadn’t found yet. “I wasn’t in favor of that experiment, but we were running out of time. We still haven’t found a thunderbird, and the eve of Her birth is expected at the next moon, according to the old carvings we found. We’d hoped that Angelique might be powerful enough to make up for the fact she doesn’t have the genes, but so far we haven’t had any luck.”
I feigned surprise, which wasn’t difficult, since I was getting more surprised by the minute. I threw another bone out to see how he would react. “Not any of the girls from Texas? Not even the young Mayan girl?” I knew Nasil had been in south Texas recently—calling himself Roberto, and that he left abruptly after killing a number of intentional attack victims. A group of girls had been captured and made into birds against their will. One was able to attach to the Texas wolf pack and was still sane, but the others . . . yes, it was probably best Nasil killed them. They were completely feral, and getting so bold as to attack livestock in the area, making the human ranchers nervous. But the report also said Roberto had been very interested in one particular Mayan child. Charles moved her and her family to an unknown location.
He shook his head. “Another failed plan. We lost Ziri to the council, which was the only girl who held true promise.” Ah. Now it was the council, rather than you.
Excellent.
“What are the bene
fits of the latest batch? As you can guess, I haven’t had new information since my father was . . . put down.” There would be no more snide comments or arguments about who did what with that phrasing. Another dip and then another slam of the machete down crossway on a sample bag to split it in two.
He nodded and marked a sample number on another tube. “The compliance level is much better, equal to the very first batch, but without the mental instability Fiona’s suffering.”
My charade was ruined in that moment, when I exclaimed, “Fiona?! Fiona Monier? You gave the drug to her?”
But I was wrong about being discovered, because Nasil shook his head and shrugged with no emotion attached to taste. “You didn’t know either, hmm? Yes, but I only discovered it myself after your father died. She’s been quite a challenge to keep on task lately. I’m afraid the council is going to have to have her put down soon. She’s absolutely fixated on bringing down Lucas Santiago. The constant plots to ruin his life and have him removed from Wolven aren’t going to work, but I can’t seem to get her to believe that. Still, this new batch is much better, from early reports. We’re distributing it to a wide area through the drug cartels as free samples to regular junkies and have found a novel way to activate the people once they’ve taken the required doses.”
My mouth was suddenly dry and there was a buzzing in my ears. My head felt fuzzy and unfocused. But this might be the only opportunity I had to have the entire plot revealed. I forced my voice to sound stronger than I felt, but couldn’t meet his eyes or he’d know the truth. “Which is?”
He let out a laugh as he pulled the gloves from his hands with a snap. “Ring tones! I proved with Fiona this year that we could use the compliance drug to make her download a ring tone that would only go off when we called. Then, when she called back our router, we would give her instructions to follow. Afterward, she didn’t even remember what had happened. We don’t need that same level for the general populace, of course. All we need to tell them is to obey Marduc with the same fanatical loyalty as the priests already have. Of course, Sargon’s goal was to have the entire of Wolven just as devoted by use of the drug so that they would run interference against anyone who tried to stop us. We were hoping for the same thing with Angelique, but we’re not certain now, since Wolven recaptured her. Still, Paolo told me that he gave her instructions right at the end that would make sure she showed up at the ceremony on time.”
Merciful Adad. I couldn’t tell Nasil about my conversations with Tony, but since Angelique was in the clinic when they took me . . . yes, now was the time to reveal what I knew in a way that would earn me further confidence. “Ah,” I offered with sincere satisfaction. “Then I know where the new temple is!”
Nasil paused and looked at me open-mouthed and his taste held honest astonishment. “You do? Where?”
“Atlantic City, New Jersey. Charles and Lucas had to chain Angelique down to prevent her from flying there. It was when I was trying to free her that they captured me.” It wasn’t precisely a lie, since I could well have been doing just that when I went berserk.
He furrowed his brow and tapped a finger on the table. “Atlant . . . but the Mayans didn’t travel that far north.”
I smiled and it was more sinister than happy. “Why find a temple when you can build one? In a city of glitz and worship of almighty gold, who would notice one new temple, dedicated to the gods of decadence?”
Now he smiled too, but closer to a leer. “A casino. That is brilliant, which means it can’t have been Paolo’s idea. He’s vicious and ruthless, but doesn’t have the brains to plan that. No, this must have been Sargon’s Plan B. He’d talked of something else in the works, but had never revealed the details. You know how he was about keeping secrets.”
Oh, I did indeed. “We should make plans immediately to fly there. Where is Tuli?”
Nasil shrugged. “I haven’t seen her this morning. Perhaps you should go look for her. Or—” He paused and looked at me with a significance I didn’t grasp. “Maybe you should just concentrate and tell me where she is.”
I shook my head, not understanding. “You’re speaking in riddles. Just get the plane ready. I’ll go find her.”
He gathered up the vials and put them in a burlap bag and answered with seeming innocence. “As you wish. But my way would be faster.”
I walked out into the sunlight and had to shield my eyes until my pupils could adjust to the brightness. Then the brightness wasn’t the sun. It was a lamp and I was staring directly into the bulb from underneath. I rose to my elbows and heard Sue breathe a sigh of relief.
“Oh, good. You’re back. Lucas called while you were . . . out.”
Ah. That would explain the buzzing in Ahmad’s mind and feeling fuzzy. I was trying to wake up on this side. “What did you tell him?”
“We just hung up. I pretty much told him everything that had happened so far . . . at least what you’ve told me. But I did say that you were probably in his head again and might have more information when you came to.”
“Did you mention the swords or the prints?”
She looked at me askance. “Do I look like an idiot?”
“Good. Then we’re going in quiet. Ahmad might make it here in time, or not. But either way the goalpost has moved a little. We’re going to see what we can do to make sure a bad-ass baby snake is never born and I think I know just how to make it happen.”
Chapter Nineteen
CASING A PLACE is always critical to any successful operation. The blueprints were terrific, but they’re one-dimensional. I needed to see things, smell them, taste them—and the only way to do that was to actually visit the casino. It was afternoon by the time we got there, after studying the prints, reporting in on the new information, and putting on a disguise so I might actually make it back out of town alive.
The Quetzalcoatl Casino was open for business, which made it more surprising that Sue was able to get the prints. It’s hard for me to walk in a casino during the moon. There are too many noises and smells that make keeping the wolf at bay really hard. So I had to really concentrate, which meant I wasn’t going to be much good at keeping track of tiny details. That’s what Sue was for. We decided I was the big-picture guy and she was the detail girl. There were still sections walled off with notices of UNDER CONSTRUCTION and TEMPLE LOUNGE—COMING SOON! plastered everywhere, but the main area was abuzz with happy gamblers. It was a Mayan temple theme, with stepped stone façades everywhere, but they seemed to have stolen heavily from Egypt. I was pretty sure the Mayans didn’t use the ankh symbols to decorate their pyramids.
When a waitress came around offering cups of soda, Sue and I each took one. I was in disguise, naturally, wearing a blond wig and moustache, along with green contacts that very nearly matched Sue’s irises. She’d lost so much weight from her illness, and carried herself so differently that she didn’t need to do a thing except put on some tight, touristy clothes that would make men keep their eyes on her chest, not her face.
It was still odd to see her not minding being stared at. A part of me was a little nervous about that, but her smile was just for me, so that settled the wolf inside.
I raised the cup to my lips to take a sip but one sniff made me drop mine and slap Sue’s away before she could drink. I tried to make it look like an accident, apologizing to the nice lady at the slot machine next to us when she got splattered. But as Sue and I were mopping it up, I whispered into her mind. Don’t drink or eat anything here. It’s loaded with the drug. I’d told her as much as I knew about the effects. Her eyes widened and she nodded.
“Do you think they’re giving it to all the visitors?” She probably should have spoken into my mind, but we tend to first think to speak out loud unless there’s a reason not to.
She’d overheard all the gory details when I was talking to Lucas earlier. He’d been extremely alarmed by more than one of my revelations from Ahmad’s conversation and confirmed that the phone bills Sue had tagged were Fiona’s.
There was a lot of swearing after that, and whispered side conversations I couldn’t hear. But Charles got on the phone and vowed to bring her in from the field immediately, before she could do any more damage. Then I heard Amber cautioning him that she didn’t want her sister put down if there was a chance the drug could be reversed.
They started arguing again, so Lucas took back the phone. “I don’t want you anywhere near this, Tony. Come back in.”
“I agree with you totally.” I didn’t want me near this, either. “It’s just a shame I’m the only one here.” Of course, I didn’t actually promise to keep out of it since, after all, I had to be here when Ahmad arrived.
Charles got back on to tell me to have Ahmad leave it alone too. They wanted to talk, as a council, about how to handle this new threat . . . from Marduc and the drugs. Of course, talking’s great when you’ve got time. I had a feeling we didn’t. Otherwise, why move the egg here in the first place, risking Nasil finding them and being annoyed enough to kill them? I was thinking they found something inside that last pyramid that changed their plans. Something that moved the date up or forced the change of location.
Sue and I found a row of slot machines that we could play and watch the whole room behind us in the mirror. Every time a staff member would walk by, we’d be chatting amiably and making all the right sounds when we’d have three bars or a wild symbol show up. “It’s interesting that there isn’t a Sazi in the place. I’d have thought the place would be swarming with snakes.”
Sue shook her head and as soon as she replied in a whisper, hand over mouth in case the mirror was two-way, I understood the logic. “No, they couldn’t do that. Snakes make people nervous, even if they can’t smell them. Nobody would stay or recommend the place. They need lots of people in here. There are a lot of junkies in the world, but not nearly as many as there are gamblers. It’s better to fill it with human staff, give people the drug, and then, when they’re hazy and compliant, you can spring the predators on them.”
