“Will’s at the schoolhouse.”
Christina looked at Jen with her eyes wide and questioning.
“Well, you can go this way and cut left, or that way and cut right on the H bar.”
Christina now headed down the long tunnel by herself. Jen had aimed her this direction to find Will. And Jen’s insistence that they all knew the tunnels and didn’t “give directions” had been hammered home.
She’d decided to come alone with the hopes that she would get more out of Will if it was only her asking, if it was only her eyes that saw.
Noah had reacted as expected. “Are you serious? This is related to Miranda Industries again?”
She’d nodded. She only knew about Miranda because she'd been pulling documents about corporations and following the trails of filed tax holdings. She’d run into shell companies and more, all of which had wolves on their roster, according to the files NightShade was holding on them. Though, honestly, many more places actually had wolves working for them.
Eleri had once said she didn't even know her friend and fellow NightShade agent Wade was a wolf until after she'd found out about Donovan. Wolves guarded their secrets fiercely, and they were out in public, in schools, and in the workforce.
Some of their employers knew about them. Some specifically recruited and trained wolves, and apparently, NightShade was tracking them, the same way the rest of the FBI tracked the KKK and other radical militias. The companies often worked on agendas that depended on wolf families.
The fact that Dr. Murray Marks was somehow involved in Aegis X concerned the shit out of her.
“Will?” she called out as she turned the corner. She did not want to surprise anyone, not with moles out and about and Will probably being jumpy as hell.
Yesterday had been quiet, thankfully. She’d intended to interrogate the soldiers, but a dual murder had gotten in the way of that. Without a positive ID on the killers—Jen and the wolf she’d brought along had scented too many people near the bodies to narrow it down—Christina had slept a full night after they disbanded their little meeting.
She’d slept better after finding out that none of her agents had trackers on them and there were none in their little room, either. But it was time to tell Will what she knew. It was time to ask him to share with her what he knew. They both knew more than he was telling…
“That you, Christina?” Will flipped up the trap door and she emerged up into the schoolhouse.
Sometimes one of the tunnels had a ladder stashed to help tunnel-goers get up into the buildings but she’d found that, most of the time, she simply had to make a good leap, grab by her fingertips and haul herself up.
She'd always wondered how they'd done this with children—when the family had all lived here, before they were being attacked. Maybe they had ladders readily available then. In the main house, the last time she'd been here, there had been stairs leading right up to the door. But things had changed, and now was not the time to ask about ladders.
She let the older man help haul her up, as it was no easy task. But once she was on her feet, she got down to business. “Will, you and I need to sit down and have a frank conversation.”
He looked to the two men who had been standing behind him and, with a simple nod, he dismissed them. When the room was clear, Christina got close to him and whispered, “Are you sure they're going?”
He nodded, not worried about the two he’d just sent away.
“Are you sure no one is listening?”
Even though his lips tightened at her mere suggestion, Will gave another short nod.
She went one step further and put her face near his shoulder. “Remember, there's a mole. Let's check for five minutes, to be sure we’re clean.”
They searched the room from ceiling to floor, turning on their phone flashlights, even though the daylight was relatively bright already. She needed to see into the corners. They checked under the edges of the countertops and inside cabinets. The school building had stayed mostly intact, leaving the small kitchen in the corner and the restroom still fully functional. Nothing was left unchecked.
“I don't see anything,” Will told her, but Christina held up a finger indicating one more place to check.
Holding up her own phone, she hit the power button as a demonstration for him and watched as his eyebrows raised in question. Pulling the protective case, she slid the battery off the back, then showed him all the empty pieces, before nodding at him clearly suggesting, your turn.
He shrugged. Taking a phone apart was a pain in the ass, but it was necessary if they were going to be sure they were in the clear. The last thing she wanted was to have this conversation and find out later it had not stayed between them.
“Son of a bitch!”
The words caught her off guard as he pointed to the tiny tracking device laid flat between the phone and the battery.
Fuck. She mouthed the word for him and put a finger to her lips, even as he reached to put a fingernail under the edge of the device and try to pry it loose.
Christina put her hand over his and shook her head mouthing, leave it. At least until they decided what to do, it wasn't wise to take it off or dismantle it. Whoever was listening would know immediately.
She motioned by circling with her hand, indicating he should speak and make something up. It took a moment for him to catch on. And then he hollered out, “What? Wait, what? Okay, okay. Now? Christina, I'm getting called away.”
“Fine.” She played along, impressed with his dedication to the lie. “But we'll meet up later.” Then she watched as he walked out the door and onto the porch. He put his hands on the railing and looked out over the land for a moment. Her heart squeezed. He’s an open target. What if he gets shot?
But a few minutes later, Will turned around and came back inside, having left the phone casually on the railing. Back in the room, he closed the door. “Was that what you wanted to meet with me about?”
“Sadly, no, it was just a quick check to be sure. If you've got a mole, it makes sense somebody could get in here and listen to everything. They can be sending signals, not just to themselves, but back out to Dr. Marks.” Or worse, she thought.
“Well, it explains a lot.” Will sighed, his face falling, understanding that he might have been the conduit for the death of some of his own people. “So what did you want to talk about?”
“I need to see the family records, Will.”
He's shook his head, instantly denying her request, letting her know that answer was just a regular course of action and nothing he’d thought about. “No one sees them, even most of our own people.”
“I know, but you and I together—” she hoped that would soften the blow, “—need to sit down and comb through them, because you have a mole. And it turns out, while Dr. Marks is out there with his well-funded soldiers and his army, he’s not just here because he wants to wipe out wolves.”
She paused as Will frowned at her. Her next words changed the game.
“He's working with Aegis X.”