Chapter 541 Chapter 541
Blaise looked at his back and then down at the bottle she still held. She needed to tell someone about this. She needed to tell everyone. Everything he’d said was game-changing and pissed her off at the same time. She looked at him, and then around the room. The bathroom was a dead zone, she wasn’t going outside to make a call. Turning, she glanced at the door Graham had pointed to. “I have to check in with my boss, don’t do anything stupid while I do.”
Griffin snorted and motioned to the window. He didn’t turn to look at her, “where am I going to go? If I didn’t freeze to death, somewhere out there is a bullet waiting for me.”
Blaise looked out the window. He was right. They would come for him and wouldn’t stop until his life was forcibly expired. If there were all these spies he was talking about, they probably already knew where he was, and the storm had gotten in their way.
She went over and opened the door and then stopped and looked around. Maps covered one entire wall. There was a lot of equipment in the room, but other than a computer, none of it was plugged in. She didn’t know what half of it was for, but Raymond must have set it up in the cage before they brought the half-brother here. She shrugged, Raymond Hardy was at the top of all the Alliance teams, so it made sense that he’d be well-equipped.
Pulling out her phone, she turned and leaned back against the table. Glancing up, she paused and then smirked; if she wasn’t mistaken, there was a cattle prod hanging on the wall. She couldn’t even imagine what he’d need that for but was sure there were some stories to go with it. Opening up her contacts, she hit dial beside Kenzo and put the phone to her ear.
“Blaise?”
“Boss. I have things to share.”
“Oh? How important? And tell me you didn’t beat it out of him.”
She smirked, “I didn’t touch him. He’s pissed off and that makes him chatty.”
“Interesting. Hold on, I’m going to get Illias to add Devin to this call.”
She heard a few clicks on the line and wondered how Illias could just add someone to a call she made. Then again, she knew nothing about technology. To her, it either worked or was a piece of shit situation.”
“Devin, Blaise has been talking to our special guest.”
“Is he still breathing?”
Kenzo chuckled, “she hasn’t touched him.”
“Just thought I’d check. Some of your team are a bit rough.”
Kenzo laughed at that, “we do our job in whichever manner is the most efficient.
Blaise smirked, she’d never heard her team leader put things so politely before.
“Okay, Blaise, what have you got for us?”
She wasn’t sure where to start but didn’t want to keep the prince waiting too long. Which part was the most important? She looked at the bottle but decided the spies merited first mention. “Some of those we’ve retrieved are working for Tomas. From what he said, I’m going to say any that were born after their mother was taken or they were taken very young.”
“Wait, you mean some of those that wore collars that we’re freeing?” Prince Devin didn’t sound so calm now.
“Yeah.” She scowled at the floor, “I’d start with the ones that were the youngest, like how old they were when they were taken, ones that wouldn’t know much about clan life and reference it with their state of health when we got to them.”
“Overall health, the condition of their necks from the collar,” Kenzo added.
“Yeah, I got it.” Devin’s tone was low and lethal.
“And,” she blew out a breath, “he says his father had many placed on the inside of the Alliance.”
“His father? So they’ve been working for the Alliance this long?”
“Does he have names?” Kenzo interrupted the prince.
“No, but he says he knows faces.” She frowned, “he was supposed to kill that one that organized Amari’s abduction.” She looked at the door, wondering what he was doing out there, “he says he was planning to free her and then take off with the money.”
There was a long pause.
“He didn’t know about the tracker.” It wasn’t a question. The prince was a smart man.
“His apartment or whatever was a fancy prison for him, he says he was locked in and guarded when he wasn’t needed.”
“I can get someone to check that out. Clarify it.” Devin sounded a little calmer now.
“Does the Alliance know about the drug they use to prevent shifting?” She looked at the bottle of pills again.
“We knew there was an injection used on the women.”
She shook the bottle. “He’s been taking these pills since he was twelve.”
“He can shift?” Kenzo sounded surprised.
“He doesn’t know. He’s never tried or,” she rolled the bottle in her hand, “he’s never had the chance to try.”
“What clan was his mother?”
“Unknown.” She didn’t want to think about his mother again or how she did or didn’t get pregnant. “It’s her last name that he uses.”
“Illias, search Ballard in the clan directories.”
“On it.”
“Has he had any of the pills since we got him?”
Blaise shrugged, “I don’t think so.”
“Does he want them?” Kenzo asked.
“I can find out.” She remembered what she’d gone through when she didn’t know if she would shift of not. It was awful and she didn’t wish that anguish on anyone. As far as she knew only clan that could fully shift were on all the Alliance teams. For good reasons, she imagined, acceptance of those they were policing was the only thing she could think of right now.
“We need those pills to figure out what they are, but do we want to chance his shifting if we don’t know what he is?”
“Blaise can handle it.” Kenzo sounded confident.
It pleased her that her team leader believed in her.
“I am so glad someone entered all this into the system. I can’t imagine going old school and having to flip through actual paper records.” Illias laughed, “there are two Ballard families listed. One has never had a family member taken or disappeared. The other had a young girl vanish,” Illias blew out a breath into the phone, “about forty years ago.”
“That fits,” Devin said quietly, “given that if the age on his ID is accurate. The girl would have been an adult when—” he stopped for a second. “What clan was she from?”
“Kermode bear, or sprit bear is the preferred name, sir.”
Blaise blinked, she’d never heard of that shifter clan before. The wild animal, yes, but a clan of them, no.
“Are there any of that clan left?”
“Uh,” Illias made a ticking sound, “yes. On an island out West sir. Twenty members. Communication is sparse, but the last check-in with them was four months ago.”
“Are there any Ballard’s left?” Blaise wasn’t usually one to care about things like that, but the man that had never known his mother might have family out there. If you didn’t count Aiden Tomas and she was starting to believe Griffin didn’t count him at all.
“There’s two in the clan, uh, an uncle and aunt possibly. I’d have to do a deep dive to see how they’re connected exactly.”
“Do that and let us know,” Devin ordered.
“Are you thinking we can dangle information in front of him and get more out of him?” Kenzo spoke quietly.
“I don’t know yet, I just want all the facts.” The prince replied.
Blaise frowned, “I don’t think he’ll have a problem sharing,” she had no evidence to prove it, she was just going on a hunch.
“How did he tell you all of this, Blaise?”
She straightened, the prince might not be in front of her, but he was still a top-rank member of the Alliance. “He was agitated,” she shrugged, “pissed off.”
“That’s good.” Kenzo injected, “I’d call bullshit if he were calmly spilling his guts.”
“I don’t,” she bit her lip for a second, trying to decide if she should continue, “I don’t think his life has been much better than those we’ve been pulling out, sir. He was treated like a pet by his father,” she sneered just thinking about Alberto Tomas.
“That wouldn’t surprise me.” There was a short pause. “Keep track of anything he shares. Leave it up to him if he wants those pills—but we need some to analyze. We’re hoping the surgeon can get there in the next few days to take the tracker out, and then Nate has said he may be able to trace where it’s being monitored.”
“Oh, a challenge.” Illias was amused.
“Okay.” She thought of what he’d said, “sir, boss, he said they already knew about the campsite being found when Amai was taken and that there would be a bullet waiting for him as soon as the weather—”
“Shit. They knew Tripp found the campsite? How?” Now Kenzo sounded annoyed.
“We need to purge the Alliance of all these spies,” Devin growled.
“I’m going to see if Uri can get one of his to keep an eye on your location, Blaise. I’ll tell them to stay out of sight, but you’ll have some kind of backup if you need it.”
Blaise exhaled, “okay, boss. I can keep him alive, but that tracker complicates shit if they move in on our location.”
“Only five people know your exact location, so unless they did manage to get a direction when he was being transported, you should be good.”
That made her feel a slight bit better, but she also knew the extremes the Tomas family would go to.
“Can we leave you in charge of him until everything is sorted out and the medical team can get there? Are you okay with that?”
“I’m all aces, sir. Good to go.”
“Great. I need to go fill in my father and then I’ll be in touch.”
Blaise nodded, “sounds good, sir.”
“Good work, Blaise.” Kenzo added and then the line went quiet.