Taking the bag, I held it up. It contained a small, black piece of metal about the size of my thumb nail. Reaching for my magick, I studied it through the clear plastic. Finally, I shook my head.
“I don’t sense anything, either. But at least we know how Danai and Tess were followed.” That didn’t explain how the witches had known where to set up the trap, though, especially since Danai had only just gotten back into town that day. Were we being watched somehow, and if so, for how long? “We need to check the rest of the vehicles over.”
“Merv and Dutch went over the truck back at his garage. Nothing,” Clyde said. “We’ll look the Hummer and Charger over as soon as we get back.”
“I’ll be happy to help look everything over. My unit worked with a few different types of trackers.” Rand put his hand on my shoulder and I covered it with my own. Sam blinked at us, clearly surprised. I smiled, shrugged, and pointed at my wrist. She nodded, a small ghost of a smile on her own lips, but I noticed her eyes looked wistful, and I immediately felt bad, knowing she was thinking about Leo.
“Thanks. We should head back and let Arella know what we’ve found so far.”
Jeremy looked up from the phones. “Why you no talk to ‘er ‘ere?”
Everyone in the small office went silent and looked at me. “Is there a way to reach her?” How would that even work? Did the water fae have waterproof cell phones?
Jeremy chuckled, opened his desk drawer, and pulled out a phone. His fingers flew over the virtual keyboard and I saw him hit send.
“Did you just text the water fae? From a burner phone?” Sam asked, her brow raised.
“Dey keeps a phone close to de shoreline an’ one of der peoples stays close by, jus’ in case. Dey gets de message to de queen.”
Faster than I expected, his phone chimed. He read it and then handed it to me. The message said someone would be here within twenty minutes. When I asked Jeremy about how that could be, he shrugged and told me that most water fae were incredibly fast in the water.
Sure enough, there was a knock on the office door—the one that led down to the water—sixteen minutes later, and Jeremy opened it to a bemused Dorn. He took in all the people in the small office and hesitated in the doorway. I carefully pushed past everyone and greeted him.
“Maybe we should do this outside,” I suggested. “It is a bit crowded in here.”
Relief flooded the water fae’s face. Once outside, I put a privacy bubble up around us and explained to Dorn what we’d found out so far. Tess handed him the list and he scoured it. I bit my tongue short of asking how it was he could read.
“Did the children who disappeared receive any of these things?” I asked softly.
He looked up at me, then back down at the list. Finally, he pointed at something on the page. “This.” I leaned forward and saw the picture he indicated. It was a Nerf type of water blaster. Okay, I could see water fae children having fun with something like that. “This, as well.” He pointed at a remote control shark with a price tag of several hundred dollars. Thinking back to the ‘tithe’ they’d brought me, I guess it really shouldn’t surprise me that they had money to spend on things like this. “As for the rest of these things, I’m not sure. I will have to show the list to the parents of the missing children.”
“I’ll send this copy back with you to show the parents.” I went back into the office and grabbed the baggy with the tracker in it, holding it up to show him. “Look for anything that looks like this on or possibly even inside all of the things that were brought back to your colony.”
“What is it?”
Rand answered for me. “A device that sends out a signal showing its location. It’s called a tracking device. We think it’s possible something like this could have led whoever took the children to your colony. Then it was only a matter of watching and waiting for the right moment.”
Anger warred with disbelief across his face. “That?” He pointed to the tiny black piece of metal and plastic. “I do not understand.”
How could I explain technology I didn’t understand myself? I didn’t even know exactly how cell phones worked; I just knew they did. Maybe he would get that, too. “Do you know how cell phones work, Dorn?” I held mine up.
“They emit digitized voice through radio frequency waves at the speed of light to allow communication.”
Well, okay then. I felt kind of like I’d just lost on an episode of ‘Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader’—and I wasn’t the fifth grader. Plus, how did he know all that, but not know about GPS trackers? Rand let out a soft chuckle and it was all I could do not to elbow him in the ribs. “Yeah, that. That tracking device works kind of like a really tiny cell phone, sending out a signal to another device that can . . . find,” I had no idea if I was explaining this right, but I forged ahead anyway, “where the tracking device is. Even if it moves around.”
He nodded slowly. “I think I understand. I will go back and look for these . . . tracking devices. What should I do with any that are found.”
I looked back at Rand, then at Clyde. Again, Rand answered. “You could destroy them, but chances are it’s already too late. If any of them made it into your colony, your location is blown. We don’t
