Part 4 (2/2)
Hart lifted his hands. ”All right. Pardon my tone. I'm just saying, you know how the others talk. You have a reputation to protect-my advice would be to rein her in before that shrewish tongue gets you in trouble.”
David didn't bat an eye. ”The only person in this building about to be in trouble is you. And if you think I don't notice that you're dissembling, you're a fool.” He took a sip of his whiskey, then asked, ”Are you after Kentucky again, James? Because you're not going to get it.”
The Prime made a noise something like a snort of derision. ”I have more important things to worry about than a state full of vampires swilling home brew and f.u.c.king their sisters, David.”
”Then what do you want?”
His pale eyes narrowed and he said, ”You're telling me you don't know?”
”If I did, trust me, you would be on the first plane back to New York.”
Hart's gaze turned speculative, and for just a moment David saw something in his face-not quite fear, but very close, and equally astonis.h.i.+ng. Then, even more surprisingly, Hart was perfectly honest.
”You and I aren't friends,” Hart said, his tone almost becoming amiable; it wasn't as if how he felt about David-or vice versa-were any big secret. ”I've opposed you at every turn, and frankly I think you're a limp-wristed, bleeding-heart child with no business playing at the grownups' table.”
”And I think you're a relic of an age best left behind,” David replied, ”and also an arrogant, raping, pretentious swine. Your point being?”
”Call off your dogs,” Hart said. ”Whatever you want from me, name it. I'm done with this game.”
David felt his eyebrows shoot up. ”My dogs?”
”The Red Shadow, David. Whatever reason you sent them after me-a vendetta, to prove something, I don't give a d.a.m.n-name your price. I've lost five of my Elite in the last four months and my Court is scattering to the winds. There's unrest in every state. You know d.a.m.n well what happens then-some little deviant upstart like you slips in and has my head.”
”Deviant,” David said, rubbing his chin. ”I haven't heard that one in a while.”
”I'm serious. Everyone knows it's the Shadow. You're the only Signet with ties to the Shadow. What little intel we've gathered points toward you or someone here in Austin as the Alpha. Insult my belief in our supremacy, insult my virility, but don't insult my intelligence.”
David leaned forward, frowning. ”I have no idea what you're talking about. I don't know any more about the Shadow than you do. How do I have ties?”
”That girl, the one who trained your Queen. My sources say she was one of them. She had to have been working for you.”
Finally something made at least a little sense. ”Sophia Castellano? I didn't even know she knew Miranda until later. She was acquainted with my Second, and she told Faith she had left the Shadow.”
”No one leaves the Shadow. How do you think they've maintained their secrecy for so long? Either they die on a.s.signment or the Alpha kills them. There's no retirement plan. This Castellano woman was either trying to get inside your Haven for something or lying about ever being an agent.”
”But I thought they only worked alone,” David said. ”How could more than one be in your territory causing problems? That doesn't sound like their tactics.”
”Oh, it's them all right. Elite disappearing, not even a second's static in the line, no witnesses, and their bodies reappear after obvious torture-but there's no evidence whatsoever on the bodies or anywhere else. No mere gang is capable of that kind of ghost operation. Then there's this . . .”
Hart reached into his coat pocket and tossed a small object to David, who caught it and held it up to the light. ”The h.e.l.l?”
”You're the technomancer. You tell me. I recovered it near the corpse of one of my Elite.”
David frowned and examined the tiny device in his hand. It was some kind of wireless communication device, obviously, but he'd never seen one quite like it. It was made of silver metal, the same size and shape as an in-ear hearing aid, and completely seamless except for the hole that sound came through. The metal was the same color and sheen as the coms his Elite wore, but it was much harder and there were absolutely no markings on it.
”You checked this for fingerprints?” David asked.
”Of course,” Hart snapped. ”You're not the only Prime with resources.”
David smiled. ”Oh? Then you had this sent to a lab and a.n.a.lyzed?”
”Why? Obviously it's one of your little inventions.”
David was itching to crack the thing open, but he feigned indifference as much as he could. ”Given that I have my own intelligence network and my own Elite, why would I need an organization like the Shadow at my beck and call? As I understand it, they hire out to humans as a.s.sa.s.sins and spies, to go where human spies can't go. That's why the Council has never bothered tracking them down-they're no threat to us.” He turned the device over in his palm again, considering it, and said, ”Besides, they predate me by at least a century. Prime Deven heard about them as early as 1500. He'd heard that the Alpha was an Italian connected with the Medici family.”
”Surely the organization has changed hands by now.”
”Not necessarily. It's difficult to maintain that kind of secrecy if you have to hand over control to someone else. From what little I know about them, they sound like the kind of network that was created by one person who trained each agent individually.”
Hart let out a slow breath and downed his whiskey in one long swallow. ”Then you give me your word that you are not involved in this.”
David stared at him for a moment, then down at the device, then back up. ”I will do you one better, Lord Prime. Leave this thing with me. If you give me a chance to tear it apart and a.n.a.lyze it, see what makes it tick, I can learn more about its manufacture and send you all my findings. Knowing how it's made and where it came from might help you track down your killers.”
For a moment Hart looked dubious, but finally he agreed with a nod. ”Done.”
Then Hart set his gla.s.s down and stood. ”If you don't mind, then, Lord Prime, I shall retire for the morning. We can meet again after sunset to discuss anything else-there are a few finer points I'd like to go over with you about the upcoming Council, but I think that's best saved for later.”
David stood as well and bowed. ”I bid you good morning, then, and good rest.”
Hart nodded, still curtly, but with a slightly less dismissive edge than before; David could hardly believe it, but it almost seemed like he'd won some grudging respect from the Prime in the last hour.
Hart was escorted back to his suite by one of the door guards, and David sat back down in his chair still holding the earpiece. He was madly curious about it. Was it really Red Shadow technology? Or something else? Whatever it was, it wasn't his.
David had considered using earpieces for the coms, but in the end he'd gone with the wristbands because they were harder to lose in battle unless the wearer's hand was severed. He'd never been entirely happy with any of the in-ear models he'd tried, and their reception of outgoing speech was iffy. Plus, he'd created the coms with the DNA sampling system, and that would have been much harder on a piece a tenth the size. For his purposes wrist coms worked just fine.
Depending on what he found when he got the earpiece open, however, there might be some new tech inside that he'd want. He didn't much care about Hart's problems, but there were plenty of reasons to want the earpiece in his possession.
He hadn't lied to Hart-he knew little of the Shadow because there was little to know. They worked for insanely wealthy humans, not vampires; they were mercenaries with no moral code, and they never worked in groups. It was highly unlikely that they were involved in this . . . but still . . . whoever was clearly had advanced tech, and that could pose a problem.
He lifted his com. ”Star-three.”
”Yes, Sire?”
”Report to the first-floor study, please.”
”Two minutes, Sire.”
Faith joined him, still looking a bit frazzled, and he gestured for her to take Hart's vacated seat and pour herself a drink.
”What did you learn?” she asked.
David held up the device. ”We have work to do.”
Miranda was angry that night.
Kat couldn't help but think back to the night she'd seen her friend onstage months ago, back when the worst thing Kat could imagine was that Miranda was strung out on drugs, and she had walked offstage and fainted. Kat had had no idea what was really going on-the possibility would never have occurred to her in a thousand years.
<script>