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Katana woke from a deep sleep by the incessant ringing of her mobile phone.
When it rang off and then shrieked straight back into life, she groaned and rolled over. Grappling her fingers through the air, she found the bedside table and the source of her annoyance.
She blinked her eyes open to see ERICA flashing on the screen. Immediately, her brain sprung into being wide awake.
“Hey,” she said, sitting up and wiping the sleep from her eyes.
“Hey chick,” Erica replied. “Sorry to call you so early but I’ve got a shield grading this morning at eight and I still haven’t ironed my uniform.”
Katana smiled. Typical Erica to leave everything until the last minute—including an official assessment of her own magickal powers that could effectively decide if she’s worthy to work for The Red Riding Hoods or not. “Don’t worry about me. You need to worry about your own stuff first.”
“No,” Erica said, dropping her voice to a whisper. “I had to call you. I’ve re-routed your tracking device but there’s a problem.”
Katana groaned. “No. No problems, Erica. Please.”
“You haven’t got another case, honey. Your dad wanted you back home.”
Katana’s heart stopped and did a backflip. She’d never bothered to open Sophia’s email after calling Erica. “No. Oh, God.”
“It’s ok—for now. I’ve put a pre-recorded route into the system and hooked your tracking device to it. It basically looks like you’re on your way home. All the drivers are booked out on other jobs, so I’ve been in on Sophia’s name and put a note on your profile saying you were happy to travel back on your own arrangements. You’ve got a couple of days, max, before questions start being asked.”
“Marvellous. What the hell am I supposed to do in a couple of days? I need evidence, proof, something to back up what I’ve found out. Tell me you’ve got something from Dad’s computer?”
Erica sighed. “I’m struggling, chick. Everything is so locked down with encryption, false links, and scattered files, it’s like trying to find a trail of breadcrumbs in a bakery.”
Katana’s heart sank to her feet. This was not what she wanted to hear. “No.” She let out a shout of frustration. “This sounds so stupid but I kinda expected you to download everything on a USB stick, give it to me, and ta-dah, job done.”
“I know. That’s what I expected too. I should have known better. I’m sorry, I’ll keep trying.” Erica sighed. “There’s something else though. The main attack map—you know the one that pings up on the start-up screen—it was flooded with red dots this morning. Whatever the hell is going on, werewolf attacks have literally increased ten-fold.”
Katana jumped out of bed and began scrabbling around for her clothes. “I need you to link me to those attacks. Any attacks that have happened in the past forty-eight hours, can you please ping them straight through to my phone with all the relevant details?”
“Sure, that’s easy enough. What the hell is going on?”
“Well, to put it simply, Gregory has created around eighty hybrids and infected them all with a virus.”
“A virus?”
“Yes. An ‘easy delivery’ method that will ensure the continued numbers of werewolves.”
A gasp sounded down the line. “Are you kidding? Oh my God.”
“He’s let twelve of them loose at the moment, but it’s only a matter of time until he releases the rest. This is now a good old-fashioned case of one bite and the person will either turn or die.”
“Is there anything I can do?”
“Yes. Pass your bloody shield exam.”
The girls laughed, each of them ignoring the uneasy undercurrent. They said their goodbyes, both of them wondering just how the hell their worlds were about to change.