“What is this? ITF’s version of a wake-up call?” I asked, voice groggy and scooting up. I went to adjust the bed’s angle with the control, but the loud burst of sound made me stop; I didn’t want to wake Bryn.
But then I noticed she wasn’t exactly in the room. Her bed was made. Her table cleared off. I continued to raise the bed.
“Where is Bryn?” I asked.
“She was released about three hours ago,” Hank said. “Aaron picked her up. She didn’t wake you?”
What the hell? She left without saying good-bye, just snuck out without a word? Granted, I knew she was seriously troubled and still physically suffering from her ordeal, but to just leave like that … “Guess not,” I said, feeling confused and hurt and a whole lot concerned. Maybe she was worse off than I thought.
The chief cleared his throat, obviously seeing my mind wandering. I focused on him. The last time I’d seen the chief, I’d shot him with a stun gun, and I still didn’t feel bad about it. “How’s your leg?”
“It hurt like hell, Madigan,” he barked and then shook his head. “But it worked. No one blamed your little escape on me, except Otorius, but that was no surprise. Listen,” he began more quietly and a hell of a lot more uncomfortably, “about that … I just want to say … well, I’m sorry for keeping that whole DNA thing a secret. Titus had a chance to save you, and I don’t regret giving him the go-ahead.”
I absorbed his words, knowing that, in a roundabout way, I owed him my life. But I still wasn’t ready to let him off the hook for keeping the details from me. I dipped my head slightly and changed the subject. “So, one of you going to tell me where we stand?”
“We’ve got Interpol looking into Cass’s whereabouts. We’ve been cleaning and processing the lab. Your friend Carreg has dropped out of sight. And if there was a connection between Mynogan bringing
“And Tennin?”
The chief’s dark face went blustery. “Well, let’s see,” he said growing more perturbed by the minute. “That string I pulled at Deer Isle for you ended up getting Lamek Kraw killed by his visitor. Murder-suicide. Yeah. It was a hit. Feeling a little used yet?”
My lungs deflated. Shit. “What else?” I knew there was more.
“Oh, it gets better, Madigan. I went and raided the Lion’s Den. And you know what? Didn’t find a goddamn thing! Held that bastard in cold cell for three days while we searched! And you know what all it’s gotten me?”
I was afraid to ask. But I didn’t have to.
“Fired! That’s what it got me!”
Hank and I winced at the same time.
“So what about us? The department knows now that I was attacked, that Mynogan was behind the kidnapping.”
A sharp laugh jiggled the chief’s angry cheeks. “You’re not off the hook! Neither one of you is. You can’t just go renegade and run around the city killing off-worlders, even if they are bad. What you both did should land you in jail.”
“Should?”
The chief’s indignation diffused somewhat, and he relaxed into the chair by the bed. “I’ve been offered a new job.”
“What?” Hank and I said in unison.
“Yeah, and you two nutcases are coming with me.”
A quick glance at Hank told me he was as stunned as I was. And we were both hesitant to ask where.
“All right, I’ll ask,” Hank finally said. “Going where?”
“The fifth floor.” At our confused faces, he laughed. “Yeah, I know. There is no name for where we’re going. Just a floor. The fifth in ITF Building One.”
“But the fifth floor is the clerical floor. There’s nothing up there but accountants, bookkeepers, and records clerks.” What the hell was the chief talking about?
“Have you ever been up there, either of you?” We both shook our heads. “Well, there you go. Look, we’ve been given a chance by the higher-ups to keep our heads above water after this fiasco. We answer to no one but them, and as far as the ITF is concerned, they’re on a need-to-know basis.”
“So, what, we’re classified now?” A laugh escaped me.
“To the rest of the world, pretty much. To the assholes and criminals on the street, we’re gonna be their worst nightmare.”
A slow grin split Hank’s face. “I’m liking the sound of this.”
I liked it, too, but then my sane voice interrupted. I couldn’t do this anymore. I’d almost died twice in one year. There was my daughter to consider here. I shook my head and let out a deep sigh. “I can’t do it, Chief. I can’t.”
The chief’s pupils dilated to hard points. “You don’t have a choice, Madigan. It’s either prison or this. You tell me which one is better for your kid.” I felt as if the breath had been kicked out of me. “Look, I know how you’re feeling right now. I know why you don’t want to do this anymore. But damn it, Charlie, the higher-ups aren’t doing this to be nice. They want you and Hank, and they’ll use any leverage they’ve got. Look at it this way,” he said, sitting back. “You can heal yourself now. You got more protection than any off-worlder I know. You bled out almost entirely. Hell, you didn’t even need a transfusion when you got to the hospital.”
That shocked me. “I didn’t?” A creepy sensation crawled up my spine, and all I could see was blood in my vision and the taste of it in my mouth.
I’d kept Mynogan’s blood. Oh, God, I was going to be sick.
Hank was beside me, hand on my back. “Breathe through it,” he said gently. “Deep breaths.”
I put my head toward my knees as waves of nausea rolled through me.
“He’s not
It sounded like a theory to me, not fact, but I had to give props to Hank for trying. “So what kind of job are we talking?” I asked, easing back onto the pillows and not wanting to think about blood.
“Well, let’s just say the ITF has cases that need to be handled outside the normal confines of the law. That’s where we come in. You answer to me. I answer to a contact in Washington. And you two have already proven you’ll go above and beyond. The head honchos have been looking for a new team to work Atlanta for months. I know it’s not fair, Charlie, but it’s all we got, and I wouldn’t look a gift horse in the mouth.”
The chief stood, signaling the end of this little meeting. “As soon as you’re recovered, we’ll get to work. The CPP may be disbanded, but Mynogan had a loyal following. And we still have a lot of unanswered questions when it comes to
For some reason that didn’t surprise me. Just add it to the other things on the list: nailing Grigori Tennin, getting Will’s soul back, fixing Hank’s voice-mod problem, ridding myself of this power inside of me, having a heart- to-heart with my daughter because there was no way I could keep lying to her … And now Llyran had escaped.
After the chief left, Hank sat on the edge of the hospital bed and, like me, took a long moment to ponder the chief’s words. Finally he straightened his back, dragged his fingers through his hair, and turned his gaze to me. “So, are we doing this, then?”
What choice did we have?
Going off the grid, having no one to answer to but the chief, being the worst nightmare to criminals who deserved it … I gave him a shrug, feeling a small smile tug the corners of my mouth. “What the hell.”
It was fitting that my first view of the darkness I’d brought to Atlanta would be seen with Hank at my side. I’d kept the hospital curtains drawn, hadn’t asked about it, and had basically avoided the issue until the last possible minute. And now it couldn’t be avoided; I had to leave the hospital. Of course, leaving in a wheelchair wasn’t exactly my style, but I cooperated because, quite frankly, I wasn’t sure I’d be able to stand once I saw the damage I’d done.
Maybe sitting down was the best thing for everybody.
“Aaron said it won’t last,” Hank said quietly as he pushed me through the elevator door and into the hallway that led to the main lobby. “You made it out of the circle before your last drop was spilled and your life force gone. He’s not sure how long, but the League seems to think the darkness shouldn’t spread too far or last forever.” He
