“We could do some groundwork, at least until we’re back on the case officially.” Having this case dangling in the wind was bugging the crap out of Aisling, both as a cop and on a personal level. She didn’t like the bad guys winning. Being blocked from the case for the past week just made her more determined. Not to mention, whoever or whatever managed to remove a massive building in broad daylight scared the hell out of her. “But we’re going to need some of your gizmos to block being followed. I’m not sure whether it’s the police, Area 42, or someone else completely, but someone is watching us when we get on the roads.”
“I thought we’d take my car.” Caradoc smiled. “All the bells and whistles you could want.”
“That’s the real reason you want us to start digging, you’re annoyed you got booted.” Maeve laughed as she pushed herself away from the table. “No bother, your gizmos should stop anything after us. Let me get dressed, then we can head out. Any idea where first?”
Aisling smiled. “Stella’s diner.”
Chapter Two
“Stella’s? Why?” Caradoc was focused on something on his phone, so Aisling gave him a break for not thinking of it first.
“Because she’s also been kicked out of the loop and she’s got Reece’s secret base hidden in her diner? If anyone can start us in the right direction, it would be her.” Stella was a tiny, extremely old changeling who ran a classic diner down off Second Ave. Reece’s secret hidey-hole was inside the diner and not connected to Area 42. Aisling wasn’t sure if Stella could get into the hidden room if Reece specifically shut her out, but she would be a good source for info.
Besides, Aisling could do with some real food.
“Good point.” Caradoc pocketed his phone and looked up. Then he held out his hand. “Hand me yours. I think it’s best we upgrade the tech on all our phones before we go hunting.”
Aisling handed hers over just as Maeve came out of her room. “Mine next. And I agree on Stella, she’s a good source to start with.”
Once Caradoc had finished dealing with the phones, they all got up to leave. Even Harlie.
“Where are you going?” He spent most of his time at home. Aisling theorized that a few hundred years in a cave in Nepal might have left him feeling uncomfortable in the wide outdoors. Especially in a city like Los Angeles.
He shrugged. “I like Stella, I like her food, and someone should watch to see if you are still being followed. Stella knows I’m your brother, but I can stay unnoticed by others.” His grin was sly and looked more like it belonged to a teenager than a thousand-year-old elf. “I’ll take my bike and go a different route. Don’t look for me.” With a quick nod, he grabbed his motorcycle helmet and left.
“I’m still trying to figure him out,” Maeve muttered more to herself than anyone else.
“So are we,” Aisling and Caradoc both responded.
“He’s very different from the hermit we grew up hearing about. I only actually saw him twice as a kid. He stayed in Nepal the entire time I was growing up.” Aisling led the way to Caradoc’s black SUV.
“Maybe he just didn’t like your mum any more than you two did.” Maeve took the backseat.
Caradoc got in the driver’s seat. “She could be right. I was just a kid when he went to Nepal, and you weren’t even born yet. Let’s face it, the rest of our siblings are pretty much jerks.”
Aisling nodded. She and Caradoc were the two youngest. Harlie was the oldest. The ten more in-between were practically psychological clones of their mother and focused on power and prestige. Their father never appeared to follow in her world domination power trip, but he also didn’t stand up to her. Even though it hurt, Aisling, Caradoc, and Harlie had cut off communication with him as well once they realized that their mother was far worse than they thought and was working in secret with the High Council to go after Area 42 agents.
Backing out of this driveway still felt weird to Aisling. Caradoc’s house was old-school, in a high-end beach neighborhood and about a hundred years old. The area around it had all been upgraded to mansions years ago. But thanks to a magic hedge that surrounded the property, no one knew they were there.
It was the going in and out of the hedge that gave Aisling the chills. But it was far better to drive through than to walk through. That experience she never needed to repeat.
“So have you heard from Reece?” Caradoc waited until she was trapped in the car before bringing that up. Considering that he’d been around Reece far more recently than her, he was trying to be annoying.
“Of course not. You know that.” She noticed he kept a sharp eye on the road and wasn’t even slightly looking in her direction. Great for proper driving technique, not typical for her brother. “Spill. What do you know?”
“Are you holding back on your sister?” Maeve leaned forward. “She’s been driving me bonkers this week with her sighing.”
Aisling pushed her back. “I wasn’t sighing. I don’t like things left unfinished. If whatever it was is finished, I deserve to know.”
Caradoc glanced over. “I thought I could draw it out longer, but I don’t want to hear you sighing either. Reece fought to keep you in the loop—both of you. He insisted you weren’t a leak risk and could provide valuable insight into the situation. He got shut down. Massively.” His smile dropped. “Whatever is going on in the higher levels of Area 42, there is something bad connecting us to it. All of us. Even Jones stood up for you two. He and Reece are bewildered as to what’s causing the shutout as it’s above both their heads.”
“I thought both of them were Area 42’s black ops and high ranking?” Maeve returned to leaning forward a bit.
“They are.” Caradoc’s frown went into a full scowl. “And not only are they being shut down, both, along with the majority of agents, are now living in a concealed bunker outside of L.A. Where, I have no idea. They got bussed into the hidden working area as well.”
“It’s annoying as hell, and totally unfair in regard to us, but I can’t blame them for being extremely paranoid. They are the most secretive agency in the world, and someone stole their extremely secret building. That has to mess them up.” Aisling understood it logically. But she also felt that by shutting themselves off as they were, Area 42 was losing resources they might need.
“Then they aren’t in contact with the police at all?” Maeve asked.
“Not that I can tell.” Caradoc got on the freeway and hit a few switches on his dash. “They seem to be rebuffing all other law enforcement contacts.”
Maeve nodded. “They don’t know who to trust.”
“I’d say they don’t.” Aisling tried to read the writing on the switches Caradoc hit, but she was at the wrong angle. “What did you just activate and why are we shooting past the exit for Stella’s? Who do you think is following us?”
Caradoc didn’t answer at first but hit another switch on the dash, then took a north-bound exit. “I’m not sure. These are external scramblers and should block anything that my normal protection doesn’t.”
“But we’re still being followed.” Maeve sat back in her seat and noticeably rechecked her seat belt.
Aisling double checked her own and braced herself against the dash. Whoever was following them was doing so too easily considering the amount of tech Caradoc was flinging at them.
“Yes, we are still being followed.” Caradoc got off the exit ramp, tore through a yellow light, and then back down a side street toward the freeway they’d been on. Three large black SUVs, looking a lot like his own, came after them. Aisling saw two more continue on the freeway they just left, but they were heading toward the next off-ramp.
“Five? Who in the hell is sending five SUVs after us? Or at least five.” Aisling hung on as Caradoc headed toward a massive freeway exchange. There were on-ramps and exits on both sides of this part of the freeway.
“There were two more that I picked up that stayed on our original freeway. All the same cars are kind of noticeable. They’re sloppy and hoping to make
up for that in numbers. Hang on.” Caradoc swerved across six lanes of freeway at the last second—including a very rough exit island—and took an exit to the left.
One black SUV made it after them.
“Damn it.” Caradoc got off the freeway and went down a winding side road. They were close to the southern end of the Glovin forest.
That forest was massive, covering a third of the state of California, and Aisling knew Caradoc had a fondness for it. She wasn’t sure that it was the best option in this case though. “Why don’t we just lead them back to the police station? That should get them to back off.”
Caradoc gave a tight smile. “If that had been my plan, that would be perfect. It turns out that I have a different plan. And a new toy I want to test that could be dangerous to try on the freeway. Or any busy street.”
“You’re going to try to take them out?” Maeve looked back as they turned onto one of the narrower roads that went through the forest. Her gun was on her lap.
“Sort of. I want to disable both their vehicle and them, then find out who in the hells is sending this many cars after us.”
“Don’t think they radioed their buddies where they are?” Aisling also took out her gun. The other times they’d been tailed it had been subtle, watching but not getting caught. This wasn’t subtle by anyone’s definition.
“I hit a full block on anything being transmitted by them right before we turned to this exit. They won’t even have a radio working.” He raced down a few more increasingly narrow roads, finally spinning out where it turned to dirt. With a grin, he hit a red button as the SUV barreled right for them.
The black SUV slowed down; these roads weren’t in great shape. But it was still moving fast.
Caradoc swore and smacked the button a few more times. Finally, the SUV skidded to a stop five feet in front of the nose of Caradoc’s car. Judging by the faces of the man and woman in the front seats, they hadn’t been ready for that stop.
Caradoc jumped out of his car and aimed a round, metal gizmo at the SUV. Electric arcs engulfed the car and both people inside slumped against the dash.
“Damn. How did you...? Damn.” Maeve beat Aisling out of the car but looked as shocked as Aisling felt. Caradoc was good, but what he just did was crazy.
“I see why that wouldn’t have been a good idea on the freeway.” Aisling was still a cop, even if she was benched right now. The idea of that type of tech falling into the wrong hands was horrifying.
“Yup.” Caradoc had an electronic pad out and scanned the car as he slowly walked forward. “I’m not sure how long this will hold. I have some zip ties in the glove box.” Aisling almost asked him why, then changed her mind, got them, and brought them over.
She and Maeve ended up hand-cuffing the two while Caradoc kept scanning and swearing softly. He also briefly aimed it at his vehicle and the swearing increased.
Once both were out of the SUV and secured on the ground, Maeve dusted her hands off and peered at Caradoc’s pad. “Want to share what’s making you so stressed?”
“I don’t think this was as stealthy as I’d hoped. The good news is that it stopped the car following us and knocked those two out. The bad news is that they might have had a secondary GPS sending signal buried in their system—the rest of their people will be on their way. They might also actually be the FBI.”
Chapter Three
“We just carjacked and knocked out two FBI people?” The FBI or Fey Bureau of Investigations was one of the agencies almost as powerful as Area 42. To say they would be upset about this was an understatement. Aisling peered down. The man was a fey; northern elf from his white hair and pale coloring. Although the northern elves were fond of keeping their hair long—this guy had a buzz cut. But no clan ear chain. Made sense, FBI agents wouldn’t want anyone to use their clan affiliation against them. The dark-haired woman was a human or a human-fey breed. Human was always the dominant gene in those.
Maeve dropped down to the unconscious bodies and patted them both down. Two badges came out. “Yup, both are FBI, but why would FBI be that blatant about tailing us? Something isn’t right.”
Aisling kept an eye on the road behind them. “Look at their weapons.” FBI was predictable on the type of firepower their people were assigned.
Maeve swore. “There is no way they are FBI. They each have a naru pistol.” Naru pistols were nasty little illegal weapons with a lot of kick and far more common with high-end thugs than any legit law enforcement.
“Someone wanted us to think they were FBI but didn’t plan on us being around long enough to tell anyone about the naru pistols.” Aisling took out the small knife she carried and stabbed all four tires of the other car. “Caradoc, we need to get out of here, now.”
He jogged over, cut off the cuffs, and dragged both unconscious bodies further into the road. “My gizmos should have left no electronic trace, and obviously the others knew who they were after, but let’s make things a bit harder to prove.”
They ran back to his car and took off down a side road.
“Wouldn’t getting back on the freeway be faster?” Aisling kept looking behind them, but there were no dust trails of pursuit. Yet.
“It would if I thought we could get there. More people are coming the way we came in and I didn’t want to go off-roading to get around that car.”
“Which hopefully will slow them down.” Maeve was also looking back. “I presume that was why you moved the bodies? Nice way to add to the blockade. Unless they really don’t care about their people.”
He swore as they hit a hole. The road was nothing but packed dirt at this point.
“Do you even know where you’re going?” Aisling watched as the trees grew closer together and wilder looking.
“Yes. Maybe. Damn it. The trolls have to be here somewhere.” Caradoc didn’t fluster easily, but he’d been too cocky about being able to block their followers—epic failure wasn’t helping his mood.
“You’re trying to find the trolls? This wasn’t your plan.” Aisling gripped the dash as he hit another hole.
“It might have been? Grundog was quite taken with me after all.” Caradoc managed to sound wounded at being accused of making this plan up as he went. Grundog was a half-troll, half-minotaur friend of Stella’s who’d helped them when they were rescuing Maeve from Nix.
Maeve caught the look on Caradoc’s face and laughed. “Right, sure she was. She hugged you a bit longer than the other males, eh?” She shook her head. “Troll females just like messing with the other species. But she did seem like a good person.”
“And we don’t have many options. I’m seeing enough dust for multiple cars rising behind us.” If it came to a shootout, Aisling supposed being in the woods was better than on a street. Of course, whoever was after them might have backed off if they’d stayed on the freeway. Eventually.
Caradoc spun the car down a hill heading toward a ravine. They were almost there when a barricade dropped in front of them.
Aisling braced for impact and felt Maeve grab the back of her seat as they slammed to a stop. “You were planning on driving us off the cliff?” The barricade was about six feet high, made of huge logs, and most likely triggered once they crossed a set point. The ravine, from what she could still see of it, looked deep and wide. Last she’d checked, Caradoc hadn’t made his car able to fly.
“No, Grundog said to come down this way if I ever needed her. Damn it. There must be some way to contact her.”
Aisling saw movement in the woods. Someone was on foot in the trees. She rolled down her window. “We need Grundog! Stella sent us!” She hoped the person back there was a troll and knew Grundog and Stella. Leaving the people and the disabled car back there might have slowed their pursuers down, but it wouldn’t for long.
The shape in the forest paused, then started moving toward them. Judging by the height, it wasn’t Grundog, this was a full troll. Trolls kept to their own kind in their own towns, usually deep in the forest. They didn’t get along
in crowded places or with lots of people.
Yup, a full troll. One with primitive clothing, unshaven face, and a large club and who was stalking toward them.
“Do you know Grundog? We got lost.” Aisling didn’t want to shoot unless she had to. Not all trolls adapted to even the rustic living that most of their people did. Some were wild.
He kept coming forward. The tusks sticking up from his lower jaw were far longer than she’d ever seen. Then he grunted. It wasn’t a muttered word; it was a grunt.
“Um, hello? We’ve lost our way?” Maeve decided to help and put a lot of emphasis on her British accent. Usually, it charmed people—this time it just made the troll’s unibrow lower down to his eyes.
And give another grunt. He raised his club and charged toward them.
Aisling had her gun ready but kept it below the window.
The troll stopped and started laughing. “Sorry, mates, I couldn’t keep it up. You were great sports though.” He lowered his club and shook his shoulders out.
“We don’t get visitors out here much. Where can I point you toward?” His accent was even a heavier British one than Maeve’s and noticeably lacked the pidgin most local trolls used. His smile dropped and he tapped his ear. “Come in again? You broke up.” He had a small earpiece. “More? Damn it, call out the troops. I’ll deal with these.”
“We’re being chased by some fake FBI people in black SUVs like this one. Grundog helped us out a few weeks ago—Stella is our friend.” Aisling didn’t like the new frown on the troll’s face or the way he’d taken a few steps back from them.
“Grundog is in town. I normally don’t dress like this, was trying a bit of a wild walk. And those cars you mentioned are almost here.” It looked difficult to fold his arms and still hold the massive club—but he managed.
Caradoc leaned down to be seen through the window. “Can you call Grundog? Fast? Those cars aren’t good.”
“Hold on.” The troll turned away before he spoke to whoever was on the other end. “Need you to stop those cars, don’t hurt anyone unless they fight. But stop them.”
An Uncommon Truth of Dying (Broken Veil Book 2) Page 2
