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The wheels in my head turned faster. “Did the 971 serum have a high mortality rate?”
Linus nodded. “Yes, higher than pure Osiris serum. It’s stronger but deadlier.”
“What are you thinking?” Alessandro asked.
“Runa mentioned that Halle specialized in purification. She excels in removing toxins from the human body. They may be using her to cut down on their fatality rate.”
“None of this explains why Diatheke decided to murder you,” Alessandro said.
Linus tapped some keys on his tablet. A screen slid from the wall and came to life, showing an empty parking lot lit by a single lamp that barely held back the night. A woman with long dark hair sprinted across it, little more than a silhouette. A swarm of familiar flying ticks tore into the woman. Lightning burst from her, arching over the pavement. Ticks rained to the ground, but the swarm kept coming, a black cloud wrapping around her. A piercing scream rang out and died. The swarm boiled, folding in on itself, as the ticks tore into the body in a feeding frenzy. Behind them Lawrence strode into the frame, the light of the lamp playing over his warped features. The video ended. Linus pressed pause. The image froze, showing a dark computer screen and in it a faint reflection, a hint of a silhouette with glasses and familiar sharp hair.
“Augustine,” I breathed out.
Linus nodded. “It was sent to my business office a month ago from an anonymous source.”
Alessandro smiled. “He let you know that he’s aware that you’re the Warden and he wants credit for bringing the matter to your attention, but nothing in that recording is strong enough to tie him to it. Clever.”
“Benedict knows,” I said. “When he was menacing me in his office, he told me to say hello to Augustine. He thought I was working for him.”
“MII is a mammoth beast,” Linus said. “And Augustine is entrenched in the state’s power grid.”
“Benedict couldn’t go after Augustine,” Alessandro surmised. “Too loud and too dangerous, but he couldn’t take the chance that the recording reached the Wardens, so he tried to eliminate you instead. One man versus a corporation.”
Benedict had badly miscalculated. I would rather take on Augustine with all his resources than Linus any day.
Linus studied the whiskey in his glass. “This Magdalene the psionic mentioned. She’s likely the brain of this warped factory. What do we know about her?”
“Nothing,” I said. “A cursory search of the Prime database didn’t reveal any Primes with related specialties. There are four Magdalenes currently in US Houses, of which two are under the age of twelve, one is eighty-two, and the fourth is a telepath and unlikely to be involved.” I tapped the armrest of my chair. “We would be looking for a mage with chemistry or biological specialization.”
“It’s a code name,” Alessandro said. “Everyone in Diatheke takes a new professional name. It’s the firm’s policy.”
Selecting a code name would be personal. It would carry meaning to the person. Very few people chose an alias at random.
“Then here’s your first order,” Linus said. “Identify Magdalene. Nothing else matters. You may use Fullerton to assist you if necessary. If you need money or access, let me know. You’ll tell nobody about what happened here today or about what you’ve learned. Not your sisters, not your cousins, not your mother or grandmothers. Are we clear?”
“Yes,” I said. “But that’s not realistic. I’m not a tyrant, I’m in charge of a family. They’ll want explanations. They know that I came to see you. The moment I start accessing government databases, they will put two and two together.”
Linus took a heavy leather binder from his desk and passed it to me. “Congratulations. House Baylor has been hired as a subcontractor for an unspecified government agency.”
I opened the binder. Nondisclosure agreements, contract, lots of scary language, . . . generous compensation.
“And if I tell them the truth, I would have to kill them?”
“Quite literally.”
My insides turned cold. He wasn’t joking.
“Your mother and your grandmother are both veterans. They understand how it works. Get them on your side and the rest of the family will fall in line.”
“What about the Ettersons?”
“What about them?”
“They’re victims in this case. I don’t want to involve them in this.”
Linus’ face was merciless. “Runa Etterson is the Head of her House. She could’ve collected her brother and flown back to California. Instead she chose to stay here and take care of her family business. She involved herself. Every action carries a consequence.”
He was leveraging my family and friends against my cooperation. I finally understood why Rogan watched him the way he did. Except it was too late.
I forced my shoulders to relax, leaned back, and let Victoria Tremaine’s granddaughter rise to the surface. “Very well. We’ll view the Ettersons as part of my House for the duration of this investigation. Since you mentioned access, I’ll need entry to all the crime databases; the Assembly Prime criminal list, the FBI’s Mages of Interest, the Department of Motor Vehicles, the whole thing.”
Linus took the seal from the table and turned it over. On the back was a username and password. “With this you will be able to log into the Warden Network, which pulls data from every government network you mentioned. Everything you look at will be recorded and examined by me. Do not use it outside the scope of this investigation.”
“Understood.” My fairy godfather had just waved a magic wand and granted me top-secret clearance.
“My dear, I’ve been doing this for a while. Do give me some credit.” Linus pinned me with his stare again. “I want to be crystal clear in regards to what’s at stake. If means of manufacturing the 971 serum became public, every unscrupulous House in the world would jump at the chance to have it.”
“They would breed magic monsters for their private armies,” Alessandro said.
“Exactly. Eventually, there would be more monsters than people.” Linus’ face turned hard and unyielding. “And that, children, I will not permit.”
Alessandro and I didn’t speak on the drive back. He seemed lost in thought, and I felt like I had signed my soul away and sealed the contract with my blood. What had I gained? Was it anything at all?
Just before I reached the warehouse, I took a detour to a coffee shop. Alessandro didn’t want anything, but I bought a huge latte full of sugar and whipped cream and all the things that were bad for me. And then I drank it in the parking lot.
Alessandro stared at the giant cup with a mix of horror and morbid curiosity. “What is that?”
“Coffee-flavored sugar and cream.”
“I thought you only drank tea.”
“Why would you think that?”
“You post pictures of your tea on Instagram. It’s really very exciting. Will it be English Breakfast or Earl Grey?”
I should just delete my account. “Well, right now I need coffee.” I aggressively sucked the latte through a straw and nearly choked.
“It will be fine,” Alessandro told me.
“No, it really won’t.”
By the time Linus had gotten through the first half of the explanations about the 971 serum, half a dozen terrifying scenarios unfolded in my head and they kept spawning others, each more disturbing than the last. The weight of responsibility crashed on me like an anvil falling from a great height. It was Alessandro, me, and Linus between my family and the total collapse of our society.
“Of course it will be fine. You’re smart, resilient, and don’t forget conniving. Now you have the authority to be all those things in the service of humanity.”
I shut my eyes.
“If you keep doing that, someone will kill you. Or kiss you.”
My eyes snapped open.
“Ah, missed my chance.” Alessandro’s wolf eyes laughed at me.
“Is everything a joke to you?”
He thought about it. “Yes.”
I slumped against the car’s seat.
“He was right, you know,” Alessandro said. “Unless we stop this, it’s the beginning of the end. Dangle enough money and people will line up on the street to get warped. At first only a few Houses will have them, then others will have to match them and will get their own pet monsters, and then it won’t be if you have them but who has more of them, and who can breed the best strain, the most vicious, the most durable, with the greatest magic.”
“It’s wrong. All of it.”
“Yes, it’s very wrong. I never take more than one contract at a time, but I took this one. It’s bigger than Sigourney or Halle or me and you.”
“I know. I’m scared for my family. What if I fail?”
He dipped his head to catch my gaze. “‘We.’ What if ‘we’ fail. I’m not going anywhere. I’ll stay here with you until we see this through.”
He would, I realized. I wasn’t alone. It didn’t undo the weight that settled on my shoulders, but it made it lighter. Alessandro would stay with me.
I started the car and headed home.
