seat at the table. I walked over to the whiteboard and erased our prior bad guesses. And as Ethan narrated the DVDs, I filled in the appropriate blanks.
"The video shows John McKetrick exchanging some sort of payoff with Alan Bryant, Charla Bryant's brother. But they argue, presumably because McKetrick doesn't get what he wants."
"That's something," Luc said.
"Oh, that's hardly the preface," Ethan said. "McKetrick comes back, takes a file, and torches the lab . . . right before the riot starts."
"Alan tried to erase the tapes," I said, "and obviously failed."
"Off-site backup?' Jeff asked.
"Off-site backup," I confirmed.
"What was the payoff for?" Luc asked.
"We aren't certain. Information that's worth five hundred thousand dollars to McKetrick, at any event."
"Good God," Luc said.
"Alan Bryant knows blood and biochemistry," I said. "So presumably McKetrick wants information to do with that. But what?"
It was a chilling question.
"And so we circle round again to McKetrick," Ethan said.
"I'm sending Detective Jacobs a message," Catcher said. "This is Chicago, so getting to McKetrick is going to take a little finessing. But I think we can have the CPD pick Alan up. I've only met him the once, but he strikes me as the type to flip easily. Maybe we can get something useful."
Ethan nodded authoritatively. "Thank you, Catcher. We appreciate it."
"Why is McKetrick doing this?" Lindsey asked. "Because he hates us?"
"He definitely does," Ethan said. "But he's also a public official in this city, and by all accounts, he's loving the attention and the ego boost."
"That's a good point," Jonah said. "He clearly likes the gig, and why risk his job? And even if he wanted something from Bryant Industries, why hit Grey House? Why hit your grandfather's house?"
"We now know the rioters hit Bryant Industries for a reason," I said. "So maybe he also hit Grey House and my grandfather for a reason. We just have to figure out what that reason was."
The room went quiet.
"Okay, then," I said. "We'll just mull on that for a little bit. Catcher, do you know anything about the syringe?"
"Nothing yet," he said. "There's a backlog in the forensics department. Might not be until tomorrow."
We all stared quietly at the board for a moment, irritated magic rising as we faced a problem we didn't have information to solve.
"I've got something," Jeff said, keyboard clacking in the background. He must have found a replacement for the computer that had undoubtedly been torched in the fire. "I know why McKetrick hates you."
Ethan leaned forward. "We're listening."
"It's in McKetrick's military history. Turns out, when he was special ops, he was part of an operation in Turkey."
Luc screwed up his face. "Jeff, buddy, as much as I love you, and you know I do, are you about to tell us something we aren't supposed to know? I mean, this doesn't sound like the kind of thing you'd pull off the Department of Defense's Web site."
"I didn't do any digging myself," Jeff said. "I have a friend, who happens to also play 'Jakob's Quest.' Due to an unfortunate situation involving a winter elf, a pod of orcs, and a very nasty spell of dissolution, he owed me a favor."
Jakob's Quest was Jeff's favorite online role-playing game.
"Let it never be said that I don't support a man's God-given right to spawn," Luc said. "Continue."
"So, McKetrick was in an operation in Turkey in 'ninety-seven. Small group of special ops guys went in to deal with fallout from a national coup. The special ops team ended up in Turkey's Cappadocian region - that's the place where the fairy chimneys are, if you've ever seen them. Here, I'll send a picture."
Within a couple of seconds, Luc's computer had registered the message, and Luc was popping it up onto the screen. It was a photograph of an arid and hilly landscape, and sprinkled here and there were enormous rock formations that looked like pointy hats. Or something more lascivious, depending on your perspective.
"And why are we taking this detour through the geography of Turkey?" Luc asked.
"The special ops guys got into trouble there. Seven went in. Only one came out."
Dread tightened my stomach. "McKetrick was the one who came out?"
"He was," Jeff said. "The report is pretty heavily redacted, but it looks like the guys were lost over the course of a couple of consecutive nights. He made it out alive and started telling some pretty chilling stories."
"Oh shit," Luc muttered, apparently anticipating the same thing I was.
"Vampires?" Jonah guessed.
"Vampires," Jeff agreed. "They trained for this mission for six weeks, and