“Oh? And how so?”
I chewed the inside of my cheek. “I needed bait.”
“Bait?” Morpheus asked, “Hang on a tick, that’s not what you said to us.”
“Alright, so I didn’t exactly lay out the plan. We got the demon in the end, didn’t we? And I’ve got a bit of cash to show for it; cash we can all use.”
“I’m gonna just ignore the part where you used me as bait for the sake of this discussion,” Ivy said, “And just focus on the facts. Someone you don’t know, some random, tipped you off about something that may or may not be… something. So, you’re deciding to go into a dangerous situation on your own, when you have a group of perfectly willing mages asking to help?”
“You can watch from Nerve,” I said.
“Or, better yet,” Morpheus put in, “We could all watch from Nerve, and then no one has to put themselves in danger.”
“That’s awesome and everything, but we don’t even know what we’re looking out for. Whoever called was pretty vague.”
“It’s a trap,” Levi said, sipping his cup of tea, “It has to be. Why else would the person have been vague?”
“I don’t know, maybe he wanted to create a little dramatic tension. I’ll just call him back and ask, shall I?”
“Alright, alright; no need to get angsty about it.”
“So, it was a him?” Ivy asked.
“It wasn’t just a him… it was the Harlequin.”
Levi perked up. “What?” he asked.
“He said as much when we spoke. He said he wanted to help, for Nathaniel’s sake; said he was the one who dropped the book off in my library in the first place, said he’d been the one to enchant it.”
“Fuck…” Morpheus drew the word out, “We were right, then.”
“It could still be a trap, though,” Ivy said.
“Under normal circumstances I would agree,” I said, “But there was nothing normal about this call. Not the time, nor the time constraint, nor the contents. Right now, we don’t have any leads, we don’t know where to start, and we’re running out of time. Whether we’re running into a trap or not is irrelevant. Whoever this was, going to Pimlico and waiting for whatever is going to happen seems like the best thing to do.”
“And I agree,” Ivy said, “But only on the condition that we turn this into a cabal operation instead of a one-woman show.”
I narrowed my eyes. “And what does that mean?”
“It means Tank and I will go with you to the spot, while Levi and Morpheus keep track of us at Nerve. We lost our primary center, but our secondary is mostly up and running. Using it at full effectiveness is still a two-person job, though.”
I glanced over at Morpheus and Levi, searching their eyes for agreement, or at least acknowledgement.
“I really don’t like this,” Levi said, “If you guys get swarmed, there will only be three of you.”
Ivy shrugged “We’ve got Tank. Nobody fucks with Tank.”
Tank grinned and cracked his neck. “She’s right… in more ways than one.” That last part he said under his breath, and I could tell it wasn’t so much a joke, but more him alluding to a sad fact about his sex life—one I didn’t want to unpack right now.
“Okay, well, assuming Morpheus and Levi are happy with the plan, I guess I could go along with it too, but we’re using stealth tactics here. Observe from a distance, don’t engage.”
“We don’t even know what we’re engaging yet,” Ivy said, “But sure, observe and hold. We get it.”
Levi shook his head again. “Fine,” he said, “Let’s do it. At the very least we’ll be further along than we are now, and we can’t exactly sit around waiting for stuff to just fall into our laps.”
“Well, it did,” I said, “But yeah, we can’t do that. So, you and Morpheus go to Nerve and figure out whatever you have to figure out to get eyes on the area. Ivy and Tank, the three of us will head to Pimlico later on and set up positions around the exit point.”
“And if the shit hits the fan?” Ivy asked.
I shrugged. “You know how to fight, right?”
Ivy scowled. “Do you?”
“You wanna find out?” I warned.
She didn’t reply to that, only glowered at me from where she stood, pacified by my implied threat. Experienced she was, better than me she was not.
When the meeting was over, Ivy, Tank, and Morpheus headed out to their respective homes to get ready for tonight, leaving only Levi and I in the apartment together. He shut the door after Ivy, then turned around to look at me. “You really think this is a good idea?” he asked.
“I never said it was a good idea, but do you have a better one?”
He shook his head. “No. I still think it’s a trap.”
“But if it isn’t, then whoever left the book in the library has just found us and is trying to help. I still can’t figure out, why the secrecy?”
He shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe we’ll find out when he shows his face.”
“You think he will?”
“Has to at some point, right?”
“Not necessarily. He went through a lot of trouble to mask his identity; this is a person who doesn’t want to be found.”
“Think he’ll want the book back?”
“If it was his to begin with, sure.”
“Are you gonna give it to him when we find it?”
“You know, I’m not sure what I’m gonna do with the book when I find it. But if I can figure out a way to destroy it, I will. That thing has to go.”
“I’ll agree with that, even if I don’t agree with your plan for tonight.”
I grinned and flipped my hair from one shoulder to the other. “You’re just upset because you’ve been benched.”
“I haven’t been benched.”
Without saying a word, I turned around and headed for my room.
“Have I?” he called out.
I shut the door, grinning to myself.
CHAPTER FIVE
Darkness had gathered, light rainfall had turned the ground damp, and the crackling of lightning above had left a charge in the air by the time 5:20pm rolled along, setting the stage for whatever was about to go down next. Ivy was nearby, I knew, but I couldn’t see her; her powers of obfuscation keeping her hidden from plain sight.
Tank was much less subtle, standing near the entrance to the station with a hood pulled over his head and his large arms folded in front of his chest. He was a beast of a man, all muscle and the threat of pain if you crossed him, but amidst the hustle and bustle of people walking past the busy Underground station, he was just another man in a sea of people.
I was waiting across the street, tucked in an alley between buildings and watching the exit from where I stood with hawk-like attention. I was also wearing a hood, my red hair tucked neatly in a braid and hidden from sight so as to avoid recognition. Someone would have had to be looking at me directly to recognize me, but with my most noticeable feature hidden, that suddenly became a lot more difficult on the pedestrian-heavy streets of West London.
A voice crackled into my ear. “Can you hear me?” Morpheus asked.
“I’m here,” I said, speaking quietly into the microphone clipped to the inside of my t-shirt, “How’s everything on your end?”
“We’ve got eyes on the exit and the streets around it. It would help if we knew what we were looking for.”
“Tell me about it,” Ivy’s voice came through as a whisper. “Seven minutes to showtime.”
“Is there anything about this neighborhood that stands out?” I asked, “Any landmarks or places that might—”
“—scream this is the place where we perform rituals?” Levi asked, sounding smug, “No, I’ve checked. Google maps doesn’t have that function yet.”
“You know what I mean.”
“I’ll work on it,” Morpheus said, “But I don’t think so. Whatever we’re waiting for, it could be a coincidence that we’ll find it here at exactly five thirty.”
“Or it could be a trap,” Levi said, “In which case you’re all dead, good to know you.”
“I’m getting a bit sick of that,” Ivy said, “Just keep your eyes on the station and watch for anything suspicious.”
“Aye-aye, captain.”
A cold feeling pushed through the pit of my stomach, but I shut it up. “If it turns out that this is a trap,” I said, “I want everyone to back off and regroup at my lockup, understood?”
“And leave you here?” Tank asked.
“I can take care of myself.”
“Like hell you can,” Ivy said, “If this turns out to be a trap, we’re all going to meet by the bookshop down the street and make a run for it.”
“Make it a Steakhouse,” Tank said, “I’m getting hungry.”
“We told you this was a stakeout, not a steak dinner, mate,” Levi said over the comms.
“Alright, everybody quiet,” I said, “Five minutes to showtime.”
I could hear the street around me more clearly now that I wasn’t concentrating on the people in my ear. The clatter of footsteps, the hiss of taxi cabs rolling past along the cold, wet asphalt, the murmur of people talking into phones and to each other. If London was alive, the people here were its blood cells, moving busily through the stream, each performing a function to serve the greater whole.
“Anybody notice how five minutes can take fucking forever?” Levi said.
“It’ll take even longer if we have to keep listening to you chattering all over the network,” Ivy said, “Don’t you have something better to do?”
“I could think of a few things, but instead I’m watching these seven monitors and—oh hi, Hailey.”
I scanned around for a camera, found the nearest street-cam, and flipped it off.
“Oh, that hurts,” Levi said.
“Seriously, for the last time, everybody quiet and focus,” I said. “We’re almost up.”
One minute to go.
I was chewing on my thumbnail without even realizing, a habit I had managed to quit many, many years ago but had somehow returned. When I noticed what I was doing, I stuffed my hand into my pocket and threw my eyes forward again, staring at the underground exit like a hungry predator waiting for the hare to come sauntering out of its burrow. Then again, there was every possibility that there wasn’t a hare living in that burrow, but a deadly snake that was about to come out rattling, hissing, and gnashing with its deadly, poisonous fangs.
“This is it,” Morpheus said, “Five thirty.”
“I don’t see anything,” Ivy said.
“Me either,” Tank added.
“Everybody keep your eyes peeled,” I barked, keeping my gaze focused on the task at hand.
It was Levi who found what we were looking for—who we were looking for. “Holy fucking shit, it’s Delilah.”
“What?” I asked, wildly scanning the crowd. “Where?”
“Walking past the newsstand. Got eyes on her?”
A moment later, I found her. She had a brown coat on, a large purse thrown over her shoulder, and she was hurrying out of the station and toward the street. “Shit, you’re right!”
“I see her,” Ivy said, “I’m gonna follow.”
“Keep your distance,” I said, “We don’t know if she’s got backup. Tank, get on her too.”
“Roger,” Tank said, and then the three of us were following Delilah as she moved away from the underground station and into a quieter part of the neighborhood. During the day, it probably made for a nice walk. There were many trees planted into the sidewalk here, each surrounded by its own knee-high wrought-iron fence. There were benches to sit on, the street was a single lane that went only one way, with space to park on either side, and the low-rise buildings looked well maintained, each advertising exactly what it was—a health clinic, a legal clinic, a boutique.
One of them, however, was a hotel, and Delilah was pulling right into it.
“You guys seeing this?” I asked.
“I’m trying to get eyes inside the hotel,” Morpheus said, “But they’re running a closed-circuit. Could do with a Technomancer right about now.”
“We don’t have one of those. Do what you can.”
“I can follow her in,” Ivy said.
“Are you crazy?” I said, “No, you can’t do that.”
“She won’t see me.”
“Ivy, it’s too dangerous for you to go in on your own. We can’t follow you.”
“If we can’t follow her and Morpheus can’t get a lock on where she goes, we won’t know what she does inside.”
“We’ll figure it out!”
“How? We gonna ask the concierge? She’s probably not using her real name, and that’s assuming she’s a guest. I’m going in.”
“Ivy! Don’t!” I said, loud enough for a woman passing me in the street to stare at me like I was insane. Déjà vu struck hard, then, but I ignored it and called for Ivy again. Still, no response. “Morpheus, has she shut her communications off?”
“She’s still active,” Morpheus said.
“Ivy, listen to me,” I said, “We have no idea what’s waiting for us in there. For all we know, she knows she’s being followed and she’s going to spring a trap once you’re inside. You’ll be on your own… Ivy… Ivy!”
Tank walked up beside me and grabbed my shoulder. He shook his head. “She’s like this,” he said, keeping his voice low, “If she needs us, she’ll call. Best thing we can do is wait.”
I considered Tank’s suggestion because he was making sense. The hotel Delilah had walked into, the Pimlico Grand, didn’t look like the kind of place people like Tank and I stayed in. This was a place for high powered execs who had been flown into the country first class and wanted a comfortable place to stay in a quiet neighborhood, away from the craziness of downtown. Tank and I were trash compared to the people walking into and out of that hotel, and I knew it. We’d send flags up the moment we walked through the door.
But then, Ivy was inside alone, and if she needed help, she may not even have the chance to call for it.
“I’m going after her,” I said.
“Hailey, you can’t!” Levi said into my ear, “Follow your own advice and wait.”
“Negative, I’m going in. Tank, make sure Delilah doesn’t leave this hotel.”
“Fuck me,” he sighed, but he followed as I made a dash for the hotel’s front door.
A man wearing a suit and a watch, each worth more than anything I had ever owned, stepped out into the cool, night air to light a cigarette. When he saw me walk up to him as briskly as I was moving, he arched back almost as if to try and put a little more distance between us. In that moment of sudden, visceral reaction, his thoughts came bubbling up to the surface, and as I read them, I understood he was trying to figure out whether I was running form the big guy behind him or about to steal from him, but I avoided him entirely and made a sharp left turn.
Stepping into the shiny, marble lobby like I owned the place, I quickly scanned for the elevators and spotted Delilah walking into one of them on her own. I rushed for it, but by the time I reached it, the elevator was moving. Instead of calling it, I waited for the elevator to stop—third floor—and then made a run for the stairs just off to the side. The desk clerk had called out to me, but I hadn’t listened. I figured I had a few minutes before she sent a security guard after me, but that was fine, I wouldn’t need more than a few minutes and I could give a security guard the slip if I had to.
I tried Ivy on the comms again as I raced up the stairs, taking them two at a time, hoping Delilah would be slow enough getting to her door, finding her key, and stepping inside that I’d catch her before doing so, and also catch the number of the room she was staying in. But Ivy didn’t respond, and when I reached the third floor, it was devoid of anything noteworthy except for the scent of cherry blossoms in bloom.
I took step after tentative step down the hallway, which didn’t look like it branched out in any direction other tha
n directly ahead. On either side there were doors upon doors, each numbered; 301, 303, 305. One of the doors ahead of me started to open, and my heart leapt into my throat. Between 305 and 307 there was a small nook in the wall with a fire extinguisher, a medical station, and a fire alarm. I ducked into it and pressed my back against the wall as tightly as I could.
The door opened, shut with a click, and then I heard footsteps. For a mad instant I thought they were heading in my direction, thought I was about to be discovered by someone, most likely a random hotel guest who, if they were so inclined, may have questions for the shady looking character trying, and failing, to be stealthy. But the footsteps were heading away from me, going toward the end of the hall.
That was when I felt it; the sudden blast of intellectual power that followed every single demon like a shadow, or a cape. My stomach sank, my heart picked up the pace, and when I saw it wasn’t just any demon walking down the hallway, but the very same demon I had seen attached to Delilah’s side, the same one that had found me at the library, the same one I had beaten up last week, my jaw tightened all on its own.
He was here, and he was walking toward… not toward the elevator, but toward another guest room door. Delilah’s. Fuck, Ivy.
“Ivy,” I whispered into my microphone, “Ivy, please, for the love of God, do you read me?”
“I’m inside,” came a whispered reply. “I’m in the room with Delilah.”
“You need to get out, right now.”
“What? No. She has files in here, and there’s a safe. I think the book is in here.”
“Ivy, you don’t have time for that, the demon is inbound—do you hear me? The demon’s coming, and he’s going to sense you out!”
“Wait… wait! I just need another few seconds.”
“You don’t have another few seconds! Ivy!”
The demon looked down in my direction, his eyes scanning the hallway for any sign of movement. He’d heard me, or he’d heard something, at least. By now his impossibly powerful brain was analyzing, calculating, computing, trying to determine if what he had heard required investigating or not. I slapped one hand against my mouth and tried to hold myself from breathing, hoping his focused senses couldn’t hear the beating of my heart inside of my chest.
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