Sydney
I’m surprised to see Consuela’s number and hesitate to answer. It must be important for her to be calling, though. Maybe she has information about the Biltmore attack. But she doesn’t know I was there… “Hello?”
“Sydney.” Consuela’s voice is slurred. “I need your help. They took my niece.”
I’m in my bedroom with just the dogs, dressed in my running gear because I am about to take them out—after our near escape at the Biltmore I wanted fresh air. I glance over at Blue, who is waiting by the door, and he cocks his head at me in question. “Tell me what happened,” I say.
“Three guys in a van, they knew where to find us, they came at us fast. They took her. I couldn’t—” Her voice chokes off.
“Where are you?” I ask. She tells me. “I’m on it,” I say.
“Thank you,” she says, her voice breaking again.
“Are you okay?” I ask.
“Who gives a fuck?” she says before hanging up.
I dial Dan; he answers on the second ring. “What’s up?” he says, his voice mild.
“Consuela Sanchez just called me,” I say. “Her niece has been kidnapped.”
“Where?” His tone is hard as steel. I tell him everything Consuela told me. I hear the clack of typing. “CCTV is knocked out in that area.” His voice lowers. “These are professionals. Consuela is involved in some serious shit right now. This is either about the Her Prophet—could be more incel conspiracists, Action Men, or another group—or it could be in relation to your attempt to take down Robert. This may be his way of persuading her to drop it.”
Rage blossoms in my chest, an explosion, a harsh wind followed by a wash of guilt. “I’ll go to her now—"
“No,” Dan cuts me off. “Be smart. She can’t be seen with you…or me.”
“If Robert is behind this…”
“Wait for my text. And Sydney,” Dan says. “Don’t say anything to Robert Maxim.”
“No duh,” I agree.
“I’m serious.”
“So am I,” I say.
“Sydney!” Dan’s voice is harsh. “You have to pretend like everything is fine.”
“I get it, Dan. What makes you think I’ll fuck this up?”
“Sorry,” he says. “It’s just…”
“I get it. We will do whatever it takes to get her niece back.”
We hang up, and I take a deep breath before gathering up the dogs and heading out of the apartment. Robert left soon after we got home. He changed into clean clothing and went to speak with people about things.
Was he plotting to kidnap a child to protect himself?
He is a monster.
I should have shot him in the back of the fucking head when I had the chance. But if he’s taken Luisa, I must stay calm. Consuela will give up on his case for her niece. I get that. But it means I’ll have to kill him. I won’t remain his prisoner.
A young woman tries to speak to me as we leave the apartment building, but I don’t want to have a conversation about whatever whale species she is trying to save. I am wretched and all I can think about is easing the pain of my tumultuous mind.
I’m sprinting, the cold air burning my lungs. Blue taps my hip, trying to get me to slow down. I push myself until a sharp pang in my side stops me. I double over, leaning against a parking meter, breathing heavily.
That was stupid! Selfish and stupid.
Nila licks my face with her warm tongue, and I meet her blue eyes. They are filled with loving loyalty. “You’re a good dog,” I tell her. She blinks and looks over at her brother as if to say, better than that fool anyway. Her expression brings a smile to my face, and the pain eases. The cramp loosens, and I walk slowly on, waiting for a text from Dan.
Blue growls, and I look up to see the woman from outside the apartment building hustling across the street toward me. She’s wearing wide-legged jeans and a black pea coat. Her golden hair, streaked with a slash of purple, is pulled into a pony tail. She pushes thick glasses back up her nose as she stops in front of me, her breathing labored. “You okay?” I ask.
“I’m supposed to give you this.” She holds out an envelope. So, not trying to save the whales…
I look down at the slim letter, then back up at the girl’s face. She licks her lips.
“Who said you should give it to me?”
She looks around, checking our surroundings. I do the same. We are alone.
“It is from the Her Prophet,” she whispers.
“What?” I take a step toward her, dropping my voice but still not accepting the letter.
“I, um, signed up to give it to you.”
I blink rapidly. “You what?”
“Online,” she says. “It was like a relay thing. People signed up for legs. We didn’t know each other.”
“But you know me?” I ask, laying a hand on my chest—just so we are all totally clear because this conversation feels kind of like wading through mud. The stranger nods. “How did you find me?”
She digs around in her pocket, pulling out her phone. “Augmented reality,” she says. “I followed pinned images. See.” She opens an app and then turns back toward my apartment building. An arrow appears above the street in her phone’s view finder—super-imposed onto the image right in front of us.
“Show me,” I say, keeping my voice even and still not taking the letter. She looks down at it; I shake my head. “Show me first.”
“Okay.” She sounds unsure but puts the letter back in her pocket and begins to lead the way. The arrow moves with us, pointing us back toward the apartment building. When the black awning comes into view an image materializes above it. A wolf’s snarling profile, with a woman’s silhouette set into it. I try to swallow but I can’t. “Who can see this?” I ask.
She lowers the phone. “Just me.”
“Just you?”
“Yes.” She nods quickly.
“And who do you think I am?” I ask her.
“You’re,” she lowers her voice to a whisper, “the miracle woman.”
Oh. Fuck. Me.
I don’t want to open the envelope from the Her Prophet while on the street, so I return to the apartment and lock myself in my room before reading it.
Dearest, I know this letter will find you well. My pilgrimage was a success and my message delivered to the masses. Our movement grows every day in every way. Please come and join me. I need you here. You must leave before the week is out and travel under the full moon.
It is time to release the wolves.
Signed, I am Her.
Under her signature is a QR code—printed black squares arranged in a square grid on a white background.
I read it again.
Cryptic much?
Crazy is more like it.
Inviting someone to visit you and not offering an address—what, does she think I’m some kind of detective? A half-crazed chuckle bubbles up in my chest. I stare at the QR code…I bet that has something to do with the address.
I can’t even believe that this letter reached me. I’d assumed that my mother or her head of security, Veronica, delivered the last one. But was it a relay as well? I pull out my phone and call Dan.
“I’ve got more fucked up news,” I say as a greeting.
“Shit, what?”
“I was just handed a letter by a total stranger…from the Her Prophet. She signed up for a relay online. Dan, she was using augmented reality to find me. There were arrows on her phone!” He releases a soft chuckle. “You’re laughing!”
“Sorry, but the way you talk about augmented reality, you’re such a technophobe.”
“Oh, sorry, are all the kids augmenting reality these days?”
“Basically.”
“Oh…well, that’s not really the point. Did you know about this relay thing for the Her Prophet?” I ask.
“I’m surprised it worked,” he says.
“Back up.” I stand and begin pacing. Blue and Nila follow my movements with their eyes but remain seated by the door—they’ve learned that pacing with me ends in Frank knocking into them, so now they let the goofball be my solo companion as I stalk a room. To that end, Frank bumps into my leg when I stop in front of the window. “What do you know about this?”
“A call went out about two weeks ago, only on the most underground forums. And it disappeared quickly.”
“Are you fucking with me?”
“No, Rebecca brought it to my attention,” Dan says, referencing his second-in-command. “Their use of geo-tagged augmented reality is actually something we are starting to copy.”
“Dan!”
“What?” He sounds distracted.
“Hello? I just got a letter from the Her Prophet—”
“Do you think it has anything to do with Luisa’s kidnapping?” he asks, his voice sharpening.
“I don’t know, but it’s important. I mean, she is telling me to come meet her. That I must. Does that sound like a threat?”
“I don’t know. Has she ever threatened you before?”
“No, but…there is a QR code thingy.”
“A QR code thingy?”
“You know.”
“I think I do but adding thingy to the end makes me wonder.” I sigh and sit down on the bed. Frank bumps up against it and then turns, knocking into my leg, before sitting on my foot. “Hold on, I’ll—” I hear typing.
“Okay, let’s make this quick. Hold your phone camera up to the code, and I’ll be right here in case it’s a virus.”
I put him on speaker and open my camera app, holding it up to the paper. The focus matrix finds the code and launches my internet browser. A page opens. It is white with just the word download written in blue. “Should I do it?” I ask Dan.
“Go ahead.” I touch the download button and the page reloads. “It’s adding features to your camera,” Dan says. I return to the camera app—it’s facing the ground at about a 45-degree angle. A red arrow appears on the wood floor. “It is trying to figure out true north,” Dan says. “That makes sense; for the geo-tagging to really work, it needs true north. Follow the arrow.”
I stand. Frank leaps up and bangs into my leg, knocking me to the side. The arrow moves as well. I follow it to the window and it disappears. “This is impressive,” Dan says. “They are ahead of us…I wonder who is working on this for them. Maybe—” His voice cuts out when a new image appears at the top edge of my screen. I move my camera up and hovering at eye level is a croissant.
“Is that a croissant?” I ask.
“Looks like one to me,” Dan says.
“What does it mean?”
“Scan the room, all around you, let’s see if there are more clues.” I turn slowly and a beret appears, then an image of the Eiffel Tower. The only thing missing is the Arc de Triomphe.
“I’m thinking she’s in France,” I say, pointing out the obvious.
“Yeah, that seems like a good bet.”
“She wants me to go to Paris.”
“Seems like it.”
“And then what? Pull out my phone and follow a map?”
“Yes, that’s how the relay was set up.”
“Like I don’t have anything else going on.”
“I can see how she may think her telling women to kill any man who fucks with them and insisting that equality of the sexes be instituted across the globe might be the biggest thing…”
Blue growls low in his throat. Robert is coming. “Shit, I’ve got to go.”
We hang up as a knock sounds on my bedroom door. I shove the letter under my pillow and then take a deep breath. I must pretend that everything is fine. That any weirdness is about the Biltmore this morning. I can’t let on that I have a letter from the Her Prophet under my pillow or that I think Robert may be involved in the kidnapping of a child to protect himself.
I unlock the door and open it, Blue to my left, Nila to my right…Frank got distracted by a toy and is on his back, growling softly to himself with the stuffed hot dog in his mouth.
Robert is holding a large box under one arm. He’s dressed in a dark gray suit and is smiling. “I got you a present,” he says, holding out the box.
“You know I’m not big on gifts,” I grumble.
He takes a step forward, and I move aside so he can enter my bedroom. Robert lays the box on the bed, ignoring my muttering. “Now don’t worry,” he says as he starts to open the box, “it’s not real, just the best fake that money can buy.”
Inside is a faux fur coat in mink black. “Not really my style,” I say. “But at least no animals had to die for it.”
“Indulge me.” He pulls it from the box and holds it up for me. “It’s cold out and your other coat was ruined today.”
“Fine.” I slip into the heavy garment. It’s actually super soft and kind of really nice.
He bends down and kisses my nose, backing away before I can swat at him.
“Come on,” he says, turning to leave. “Let’s have a drink, it’s been a long day. I’ll tell you about my conversations.” My gaze sweeps over my bed for a moment—should I move the letter?
There isn’t time. A sense of impending doom curls around me, as warm and suffocating as the new coat.