Chapter 138
Kilmer--
Everyone is exactly as I fucking thought they would be when I walk into our shared workspace. Typical. Stockton almost falls out of his chair and breaks a hip trying to hide the damn cards, and Jefferson picks up all the quarters in the pot while Stockton is struggling. The chair Stockton is still half sitting in creaks like it’s five pounds from collapse. I hope he’s been laying off the creamer like he said he would. There’s an awkward silence as the other men in the workspace stare at me, waiting to see if I’ll bother to reprimand anyone for doing shit they aren’t supposed to. I have to take a moment to really absorb the regret I feel for every choice that landed me here. Once I have an inventory of every relevant mistake, I start on my way to my office. It’s easier to pretend to ignore them in there.
Drew comes running up to me, tablet in hand. His hair is sticking up in tufts like a mangled lawn. “Boss, we have a development!”
I wait patiently for him to pull himself together. When he finally stands up straight and runs a hand over his hair self- consciously, I nod to him. “What’s the development? Do you know for sure where they’re keeping Cora? Or do you have a way we can leverage her relationship with her mother?”
He’s mildly crestfallen, but Drew rallies. So good to know he has information, but not the kind I want. “Actually, sir, I have more transcripts from their group chat. They clearly know we’re listening in, but we still have information! Cora is still with Landon– I guess they’re dating now? – and they’re looking for other werewolf packs!”
If the victim is still with her kidnapper… “Do you think it’s a case of Stockholm Syndrome? She should have left him now that they’ve been discovered. I would have liked to pull her in on trumped up charges of fleeing arrest so we could question her.”
Drew, naive boy that he still is, runs his hand through his already- wrecked hair. “Is it technically fleeing arrest if she was kidnapped?”
I take a deep breath for patience. “That wouldn’t matter, Drew. Tell me more about these other werewolves.”
He smiles again, back on comfortable ground. “It sounds like they found five groups that they’re going to investigate further. It’s apparently also really easy to do– Cora must have parameters that she’s looking for– they found all five of them in one afternoon. It sounds like James Susi is going to check out whoever they decide is legitimate and make sure they aren’t some kind of security risk and then they’ll initiate contact.”
I feel my eyebrows rise. “All of that from this one text thread?”
“James is a very efficient communicator.” There’s an unhealthy admiration in his face. He clearly can’t do any field work on this case. He’d fuck us all over. No matter how much Stockton and Jefferson fuck up, Drew has to stay in the office here.
I wave a hand. “That doesn’t matter. We need to learn these parameters so we can do our own research. Then we won’t need to stalk this group to find the truth, we can find a group that doesn’t already know we’re coming and investigate them. Get to work finding out how they found the groups they did and where these packs are.”
Drew smiles widely, clearly excited to be assigned something he planned to do anyway. That’s fine. “Sure, sir. I’ll figure out who and how they know. Then I’ll see about Cora’s mom.”
A vicious kind of glee fills me as I have an idea. “Actually, Drew. Don’t worry about the mother. Stockton! Pack your shit– you’re headed south to surveil the older Ms. Ilyin. I want nightly reports on everything she does!” Stockton and Jefferson both mutter curses, but I pretend not to hear them and walk into my office. Serves them right, anyway.
Ramirez requested we don’t get involved in the New York werewolves until she can infiltrate them, which was a fair request based on our recent history with them. She can’t say shit about us contacting other werewolf packs, though. My brief for this mission doesn’t say anything about proving the Úlfur brothers in particular are werewolves, just the existence of werewolves in general. I’ll spread out my strategy and hedge my bets on different groups.
There has to be an unsuspecting group of werewolves dumb enough to be caught shifting by one of my agents. I glance out the window. Stockton is angrily shoving notepads into his eighties- era briefcase as he prepares to leave for North Carolina like he’s going to hand write his every report to me. He actually might do it– if only out of spite. Jefferson laughs at his misfortune, not knowing that I’m going to send him to whatever werewolves Drew manages to dig up. Hopefully I can send Jefferson out before Ramirez gets back from vacation. He's been angling for a date with her for months now and is one bad day from a hellish meeting with HR. Maybe a dumb werewolf pack isn’t the right thing to hope for. Maybe they just need to be unlucky. Even my agents get lucky sometimes.