Page 38 of Gray Dawn
“We’re clear.” Marita opened the door opposite me. “No more witches on the ground.”
“Luca,” I gasped, tumbling into a coughing fit. “I forgot to tell you?—”
“I relayed what I overheard the witch telling you.” Fergal, who I had just noticed, was keeping a slight distance from the SUV, and from Arden. “Luca wasn’t here. Neither was Clay, or the director.”
“How is that possible?” I couldn’t believe this was a total bust. “Could the tablet be the problem?”
I had never heard of a witch dowsing over one. Everyone I knew used paper maps. But I was old school.
“He was here.” Dad left no room for argument. “The Mayhews didn’t pick up his scent, so he didn’t get out. He must have been surveilling the distillery from a parked vehicle on the access road we passed on the way in.”
“That,” Asa added, “could explain his quick exit when things got heated.”
“If Clay saw what went down,” I reasoned, “and that’s why he left, he won’t be back.”
“He won’t.” Asa returned his focus to me. “But Luca might.”
“We’re already here.” I bobbed a shoulder. “It won’t hurt to hang around and see what shakes out.”
“Might as well.” Marita parked her naked butt beside me. “This group, man. They’re whackadoodle.”
“What do you mean?” I ignored the sounds of Derry shifting in a patch of darkness. “Who are they?”
“Word has spread about Luca and her rogue black witches.” Fergal sounded closer. “This coven has no affiliation with Black Hat that the Kellies can find. That doesn’t mean there isn’t one, but it’s buried deep.”
Once other paras noticed what she was doing, we were bound to reach a point where newer supporters of her cause had heard it from a friend who heard it from a friend and so on. It was inevitable. Too many paras thought the way she did and would be glad to side with her to help bring forth a new world order.
“They’re extremists,” Derry panted, climbing to his feet. “They want paranormals to walk in the light, enslave humanity, become the gods of man, blah, blah, blah. The usual. I doubt Luca would have bothered allying with them, except they also own a local beer label. This one. Luca was coming here to finalize her plans and seal a bargain with them, or so they claimed during questioning, ceding control of Dallas to their coven after paras go mainstream.”
“Goddess bless,” I muttered, hating to be proven right. “Have they started production yet?”
“No.” A coldness spread across Dad’s features. “I interrogated them myself.”
No one spoke for a moment, convincing me I was lucky to have missed out on the festivities.
“Do they have any idea when Luca is set to arrive?” I homed in on Dad. “If she’s flying in?”
The hub idea was a solid one. It made the most sense, given the pattern of poisonings. But our best-case scenario was that we were playing follow the leader. Assuming Luca was tracking the director, and we were tracking Clay, who was with the director, that still left a lot of room for error.
“They’re expecting her tomorrow night.” He raised his gaze to mine, searching my face for, I think, condemnation of his methods. “She didn’t share her travel arrangements.”
This late in the game, she couldn’t afford to trust sensitive information to anyone outside her original circle. These new witches were too motivated by their own desires—rather than hers—and she was smart enough to know any one of them would kill her and step into her shoes given half a chance.
“Okay.” I hated I was relieved by the timetable. “Then we get a room and see what shakes out at dusk.”
“Any survivors might warn her away.” Asa stared at the bodies of the witches, tallying the dead. “If Nan, Luca’s pet hacker,” he clarified for the others’ sakes, “retained access to the original Black Hat database, enough to force her way into the newest iteration, she can track our movements again.”
“She would see if the cleaners were dispatched to the distillery,” I muttered, “and cancel Luca’s plans.”
“That’s the danger, yes.”
“The old database.” I had been receiving fewer tech updates in Clay’s absence. Either the others thought I was more proficient than I was, or they lacked the patience to dumb down details for me. Probably the latter. “They’re reviving it?”
Unsure what a database was, exactly, I had come too far to admit my total and complete ignorance now.
“Only as a temporary measure. They’re going to copy all the files, do a data cleanse,” Asa said, “then move servers. All agents will be required to set up new accounts and passwords to access it. Then the old database will be erased.”
“I’m all for more security.” Too bad it wouldn’t do us any good any time soon. “What’s next?”