knew this was no time for mercy. “Yes.”
The woman opened her mouth as if to beg or scream for help, but it was too late. Miane had slit her throat using a knife Vasic hadn’t seen her pull out. “Are there any others here?” the BlackSea alpha asked after wiping the blood on the back of the woman’s shirt and rising to her feet.
Vasic shook his head. “According to her memories, it was meant to be a long-term containment facility. Leila was the test subject. They moved her out this morning.”
Jaw a hard line, Miane said, “Let’s exit. Quietly as we entered. The longer the guards are in the dark, the longer we have to track down Leila without interference.”
Vasic got the entire team out without incident, then told Miane what else he’d discovered in the woman’s mind. “She was in charge of only Leila Savea.” Another example of the fragmentation practiced so effectively by the Consortium. “Her job was to break Leila and train her to follow orders, even if those orders were to kill.”
Interestingly, the torturer had believed herself equal to all others in the Consortium, which Vasic knew for a fact wasn’t true. The CEO the squad had captured previously had been in the innermost circle, part of the decision makers who held power over the more disposable pawns below.
However, those details he’d share later. Currently, only one thing was important. “Leila was taken away in an SUV with the following number plate.” He wrote it down for them. “Though the woman wasn’t meant to and didn’t know the final destination, one of the drivers slipped up and mentioned they were heading toward the Yukon.”
“Can we hack into the traffic systems?” Miane asked Malachai.
The big male nodded. “I’m on it, but even though we’re only searching a certain corridor, the country has a lot of uncharted roads that aren’t used enough to justify traffic surveillance. If I was doing something illegal, I’d stay on those uncharted roads—and if I did take the main highways, I’d do it at night and make sure my plates were too muddy for the scanners.”
Miane swore. “We need people looking for that SUV, but even if we alert all our people and the changeling packs our allies know, it won’t be enough. There aren’t enough of us.”
Malachai paused, blew out a quiet breath. “There are a lot more humans on the roads, including truckers who travel at night and everyday individuals who drive back and forth to their homes and work.”
Vasic could see Miane struggling with the decision she had to make. Send out a request across the Human Alliance network for information about the SUV and possibly find it—or have that information end up in the hands of the enemy, who’d either hide Leila once again . . . or eliminate her as too big a risk. The good news was that the latter would have to be a last resort: they’d put too much time and effort into her to discard her so quickly.
“I’ll talk to Bowen Knight,” Miane said at last, her hand fisted. “Request he ask his people to report any sightings of the vehicle.”
“It’s the best choice.” Malachai held his alpha’s gaze, his brown eyes appearing to glow as if backlit. “At least it gives Leila a shot before she’s forced to kill, because once she does, we won’t be able to bring her back. She isn’t built for that.”
“No, Leila is built for science and exploration and writing scholarly papers.” All but vibrating with anger, Miane stalked to the comm. “Bowen Knight doesn’t need to know why I’m asking for this—I don’t trust him enough yet. I’ll bargain a favor for a BlackSea IOU.”
“Actually, the Alliance owes us one,” Malachai said. “I tipped Bowen off about an anti-human Psy cell we picked up on in Venice.”
His alpha paused midstep. “Why didn’t I know about this?”
“I was going to brief you, but then we heard about Leila’s message and it didn’t seem particularly important.” Malachai shrugged. “It was only a fringe group of fanatics, nothing major, but they were apparently planning to storm the Alliance offices with weapons.” He folded his arms. “Bowen confirmed our intel was right, thanked me. I told him one day, we’d call in the favor.”
Miane’s eyes narrowed slightly. “Sometimes, Mal, I think that brain of yours is a dangerous weapon. Good thing you’re on my side.” She input the call after Malachai moved out of the shot.
Vasic teleported home to Ivy before