"Seturna Odnard is at the temple. We have been working with someone named Tork," Pebrus gave the answer.
"An assumed name," Norian looked up at me. "We have twenty-nine agents on Trell. We had thirty, but one has been missing for a while. Could be any one of them, though. With the proper resources, they might be able to trace my chip number." He'd used it to pay for our train ride.
"Did you suspect a mole before now?"
"Of course I did. I've known we were infiltrated for some time. The Charter Members are investigating their staff and Lendill and I have been trying to help with that. We've found two so far, but none of them knows about any of the others, so we have to track them one at a time."
"Honey, that sounds like a mess."
"Lissa Beth, it is a mess." Norian went back to questioning Pebrus, but he was just a flunky to Seturna Odnard—somebody who was expendable if he was killed trying to kill us.
"I don't want to turn him over to the local authorities," Norian informed me after he'd gotten as much as he could from Pebrus. "We could kill him, but I don't want to do that yet."
"We can put him in my dungeon," I offered. Pebrus, who'd been listening, cringed at the mention of a dungeon.
"It won't be like the ones Solar Red operates," I told him. Solar Red tortured their prisoners and their dungeons were notoriously filthy and dark. My prisoners might get intense questioning under compulsion, but they had clean, decent quarters. If they were sentenced to die, their death was swift and as painless as we could make it.
Norian nodded his acceptance, so we folded to Le-Ath Veronis, which shocked Pebrus no end. I laid compulsion not to talk about how he'd gotten where he was, and Drake and Drew came running when I sent mindspeech. Some of Rigo's Rith Naeri helped and we got Pebrus placed inside his new home beneath my palace. Drake and Drew tried to convince us to spend the night, but we were hot on the trail of Solar Red in Rezael, so we left again.
* * *
"Seturna, the news is everywhere concerning the attack at the train station, but they haven't reported finding bodies and Pebrus hasn't reported in." The one who called himself Tork stood inside Seturna Odnard's private office to give the news.
"The news is accurate? There is proof of the attack?" Seturna Odnard frowned at his informant.
"Yes, Seturna. The spies we have embedded within the local authorities say the laser blasts are legitimate—the train car had to be repaired before it could continue on its journey."
"But no bodies were found."
"No, Seturna. Not even blood was found, which is puzzling."
"And what do the witnesses say?"
"They only saw the laser blasts—they didn't see who fired the pistol or the ones being fired upon, it happened so quickly, and they were all falling to the floor to avoid getting hit."
"So, there's either treachery afoot and someone knows and managed to keep it away from us, or something else is going on." Seturna Odnard watched his mole carefully. They'd gone to great lengths to get this one and set him up. Odnard had no desire to lose him now—he was much too valuable.
* * *
We'd found our way into Seturna Odnard's study while he was talking to the mole, and even though Norian couldn't send mindspeech, I could feel his anger. It was white hot and uncomfortable. We listened to part of the conversation between the mole and the Seturna—they didn't get any information from the attempt on our lives—things had happened much too quickly. I had to get Norian out of there and fast, however; I had a feeling that the moment I dropped him, he would make the turn, he was so furious. I had to find a deserted spot so he could do that, and then I had to get him calmed down. There were things he needed to know.
I flew through the ceiling and then away from there as quickly as I could. Snow was falling again; thick white flakes dropped through my mist as I rushed along, searching anxiously for a safe place where Norian could turn. I was afraid the tiny ASD office might now be watched, so I didn't go there. I found an empty hotel room instead, and hoping that the hotel staff wouldn't send any guests there, dropped Norian inside it. I remained mist, too, as he quickly turned to lion snake, then tried not to cringe as he hissed and shook his tail angrily before throwing his body against a wall."Norian, stop that—someone will hear!" I did some hissing of my own as I materialized. Norian flung himself once more at the wall with a loud thump before he turned in my direction, his hood spread and mouth open to display lengthy fangs. "Norian, listen to me and listen carefully. You only think you know who that was. I can still use my scenting abilities while I'm mist and you can trust me when I say that the spy wasn't Lendill."
Chapter 8
Norian hadn't changed back to his humanoid form and was now snaking his way toward me. "Norian, I think we should go and find the real Lendill. Chances are he's still in Xindis right now, working away. At least that's where I hope he is. I hope they haven't gotten to him yet. I have a feeling they plan to replace him with the doppelganger we just saw a few minutes ago. I think the one we saw is your missing agent—he probably knew what Lendill looked like and had his features altered."
"You're kidding?" Norian stood in front of me, completely naked and still angry.
"Honey, I'm sure they made that guy exactly like Lendill in every way except one. Scent doesn't lie and that guy not only had a different scent, but he had taint all over him. You don't get that tainted in the space of a few hours. It would take years to get that bad. Come on; let's go looking for the real thing. I have a feeling he's in trouble."
Norian finally capitulated, dressed himself and I folded him back to Xindis. It's a good thing we went when we did—Lendill was in the fight of his life. The whole ASD headquarters had been ransacked and Lendill was involved in a shoot-out. If Norian and I hadn't shown up, they might have killed Lendill—he was in the middle of two sets of enemies, huddling behind a brick column outside headquarters when I grabbed him up as mist. I dropped him and Norian on top of the building and then zipped down to street level to take out a few snipers.
* * *
"Lissa Beth, you could have left at least one of them alive so we could question them," Norian grumbled later, as six bodies were lined up—all headless—inside ASD headquarters.
"They were all shooting, what did you want me to do?" I did some grumbling myself. Yeah, Norian was right, but my adrenalin had been pumping and I took them all out before I even realized we might need one of them.
Lendill had been shocked when Norian told him what we'd seen. "Now what do I do? They'll be hunting for me for sure." He was pacing and fretting over the whole incident.
"Do you recognize any of these?" I pointed to the six bodies. Norian shook his head. They were all Solar Red, according to him.
"Then I'll try a little trick I learned from the Larentii," I said, and walked over to one of the heads. Normally, I'd have matched up body parts by scent, but these had something blocking their smell—as if someone worried the scent might incriminate them. I was forced to match clothing, instead, and I kept the scenting problem to myself—no sense in worrying Lendill or Norian more than they were already. I set about using power to change the appearance of the head and body I'd chosen, until we had a third replica of Lendill. "There," I said. "Now, let's scatter two or three of these fuckers around, make it look like a takedown and then dump the others on Tykl."
Norian had been watching me with shocked fascination as I'd disguised the attacker to look like Lendill. He also called somebody and told them where the three bodies would be on Tykl, in addition to asking them to investigate the entire mess there at headquarters. We'd have to find another place to stay.
None of us was happy when we had to leave most of our clothing and supplies behind—it would look suspicious if we didn't. I took one complete change of clothes with me, as did Norian and Lendill. I folded them back to the hotel in Rezael, after borrowing a credit chip from Flavio. He'd been wakened from a sound sleep but it couldn't be helped and I Pulled the credit chip in and let Lendill use it, after altering his appearance. He now looked like the third most beautiful man I'd ever met.
"Lissa Beth, life just keeps getting stranger and stranger around you," Norian had fists on hips when we got inside the hotel room.
"Honey, you have no idea how strange things can get if you stick around, and we haven't even made a dent in that thirty years yet," I informed him.
"I'll need new equipment," Lendill ventured to say. Honestly, the poor man was probably still in shock. I know I would be if I found out somebody had manufactured a twin who was meant to take my place, and then gotten attacked by those who wanted my twin to take over. And the fact that his face no longer looked like his own had to be the biggest surprise of all. At least he was extremely handsome now and likely would have to fend off women wherever he went.
"Can we get what you need on Le-Ath Veronis?" I asked.
"Probably."
"Good. We'll go there. I desperately need to soak in the hot tub and we have that fucking hearing on Cloudsong tomorrow."
"As long as you get me back here the minute it's over," Norian huffed. "We have work to do here. I need to contact one of the twenty." Well, maybe he was on a first name basis with all of them. How was I to know? I truly didn't care, either. I folded us to Le-Ath Veronis.
"No, I made him look like Flavio. That's Lendill Schaff." I'd explained it for maybe the fifteenth time since we showed up in the kitchen of my palace to see if we could find something to eat. Rolfe was there and watching us. He even sat with us to have a snack, once he discovered it was Lendill and not Flavio. The Head of Earth's Vampire Council still carried a lot of clout.
Norian and Lendill went off to grab equipment, Rolfe promised to find Lendill a bedroom and I yawned the whole way to my bed. Drake and Drew discovered I'd come back—I'm sure Rolfe sent mindspeech but I didn't call him out on it. I had two Falchani in my bed when I reached my suite, and they let me sleep. Eventually.