Rule had called Special Agent Bergman on his way here. She’d just badged her way past the officer at the end of the street and was headed for him, trailing two of her agents. Rule started for her.
“What’s this about Special Agent Yu being missing?” she demanded as she drew close.
“I believe she was taken from here after her guards—and about four dozen other people—were incapacitated magically. Special Agent, a ship is about to depart that may have our prime suspect aboard. I need you to stop it.”
“Yeah? Well, I need you to tell me what you were doing at Hammond Middle School tonight that broke several windows, burned some of the bleachers, and left bloodstains on the floor.”
Rule wanted to howl. “Let me guess. You received an anonymous tip.”
“Right now I’m talking to you, and I want a really good explanation, or you’re going to be wearing restraints like that oversize Adonis who’s following you.”
“Lily has been taken and you’re playing right into—” Rule’s phone sounded. This ringtone he knew. He snatched it from his pocket, and maybe he moved too fast, because one of Bergman’s agents drew on him. He snarled at the man and thumbed the phone’s screen. “Yes.”
“Sorry I couldn’t call sooner,” Ruben said. “There was a bad situation in Baltimore. People died. What’s happened?”
“Lily’s been kidnapped. I need a ship stopped.”
“All right. Which one?”
CONGRESS kept talking about rescinding or lessening the strength of the emergency provisions that gave Unit Twelve agents an unprecedented level of authority. As usual, they couldn’t agree on how to go about it. Until they did, when the head of Unit Twelve said jump, authorities both local and federal had to start hopping.
Ruben had the Valkyrie held in port so it could be searched. Odds were that Hugo wasn’t on it, but they couldn’t afford to assume that.
Special Agent Bergman was temporarily seconded to the Unit. Ruben had no Unit agents available for the case, and this would, he said, keep the chain of command tidy. She took Rule’s statement about the events at Hammond Middle School, but she stopped talking about restraints.
Jasper, Chris, and Alan arrived. Then Mike showed up, four-footed. Once he was back on two legs, he told Rule that Hugo had had a car parked in the alley—a beat-up 1990 Jetta—and Mike had Changed so he could try to follow. He’d kept up at first, but cars are faster than wolves if they don’t bog down in traffic. Hugo had lucked out on the traffic, which hadn’t yet backed up, and he didn’t mind breaking the speed limit. Mike had lost him, but he did have the license plate number.
The cops put out an APB on the Volkswagen, but Rule didn’t expect much from that. The man would have ditched it by now.
As all this happened, more and more people woke up. A few were transported—two of those who’d been in vehicles when they passed out, a woman who’d cut her leg somehow, and a man who’d hit his head on a table. He’d been in the bar next to Dingos. The effect, whatever it was, hadn’t been stopped by walls, so some of those inside nearby buildings had been affected. Most, however, were unhurt.
Throughout all this, the pressure inside Rule kept building. None of it was helping. None of it got him one inch closer to finding Lily. He paced. He wanted to run, to Change and run. He could focus for a few minutes on something else, could start to plan, but then his brain hiccupped and he was thinking about Lily. About her in Robert Friar’s hands, and what he might be doing to her right this minute.
Tony hadn’t set Lily up. Rule had. He’d oh-so-cleverly manipulated her into taking what he thought would be the safer path. Friar had Lily, and it was his fault.
Cullen stepped in front of him. Rule jerked to a stop. “What?”
“You aren’t Lily.”
Rule’s fists clenched tight—and his shoulder sent a burst of pain to remind him he was not healed. “What the hell is that supposed to mean?”
“You’re hanging around the crime scene, trying to do the things she’d do. But those aren’t your things. That special agent with the great legs and lousy attitude is a pain in the ass, but she’s competent. Let her handle things here. You need to go do your thing.”
For a long moment Rule said nothing. Finally, quietly, he said to Cullen what he couldn’t have said to anyone else, save Lily. “I don’t know what to do.”
“Do something the others here can’t. You’re Rho. Do something Rho.”
“I am doing something Rho. I’m exercising incredible control and not knocking you on your ass.”
Cullen’s mouth smiled. His eyes didn’t. “Hold on to that control, because I’m about to really piss you off. You can’t figure out what to do because you’re too busy feeling guilty. Later, when you’ve got her back, you can wallow in guilt like a dog rolling around on a nice, stinky pile of dead fish. You can’t afford guilt now. Lily can’t afford it, so stop.” Cullen turned and walked away.
For a long moment Rule stood there, not moving. Cullen was right. He was 100 percent right. And Rule still didn’t know what to do.
Do something Rho? What did a Rho do? Stay in control, take care of his people, plan ahead, give orders…Rule’s control wasn’t what it should be, but he was holding on. He didn’t have a plan, and the only order he could think to give was to send his men searching the city block by block, looking for Lily. Which was about as useless an activity as the proverbial needle hunt, only this haystack covered roughly forty-six square miles, which just proved how poorly his brain was…
No. No, they shouldn’t look for Lily. And it wasn’t a Rho he needed to be, but a Lu Nuncio. The Nokolai Lu Nuncio.
He looked around, spotted the person he wanted. “Tony,” he called sharply. “I need you.”
Several minutes later, Rule was telling Ruben what he needed while Tony was on his own phone, summoning his clan. The lupi portion of it, that is.
Elves’ ability to cast illusions only affected those around them. They left scent trails like anyone else, and they smelled like nothing in this realm. The Laban lupi would go to Hammond Middle School—more elves had been there, and they’d thoughtfully lain on the floor, leaving plenty of scent behind. After Changing and getting a fix on the scent, each lupus would leave for his assigned area accompanied by a police officer, park ranger, or member of the military. People in uniform, that is, so humans wouldn’t be alarmed by the enormous wolves who were suddenly all over their city. Enlisting those authorities had required Ruben’s authority, but he’d agreed it was worth trying.
It was still one damn huge haystack, but he was sending ninety-four Laban noses out to sniff it, and they would be looking for multiple needles, not just one.
Tony had his head down with Special Agent Bergman over a map of the city, deciding how best to divvy up search areas. Rule wasn’t needed for that. They knew the territory. He didn’t. He looked around for his men and saw someone who wasn’t his.
Or was he?
Jasper sat slumped on the curb. Overlooked by the cops, forgotten by Rule and everyone else. Rule wasn’t the only person with a loved one in Robert Friar’s hands, was he? And Jasper didn’t have clan around him. He didn’t have Cullen to bitch-slap him with a few hard truths. He didn’t have a task, a function.
Rule went to sit beside his brother.
Jasper didn’t look up. For a long moment neither of them spoke. Rule was thinking again, and he was thinking about Hugo. Lily’s instinct about Jasper’s former agent had proved all too accurate. If Hugo was actively working with Friar.…and he must be. He’d helped set up Lily.
Maybe Rule knew who had the prototype now.