Sascha leaned forward. "I talked with Faith this morning. She said she'd spoken with the NetMind, but that it was too agitated to make much sense."
"Damn," Clay muttered. "An assassination?"
Judd's eyes flickered in surprise. "Yes. A Council member."
Silence gripped the table. Talin saw open distress on Sascha's face. "My mother?" The cardinal clasped Lucas's hand in a tight grip.
"She wasn't the target," Judd said, and Talin was startled to hear a hint of gentleness in his voice. "Oddly enough, Nikita is one of the more moderate Councilors - as long as her business interests aren't compromised, she doesn't support the idea of wholesale genocide."
Talin shuddered at what that faint praise said about the Council as a whole.
"You can't confirm?" Lucas asked, his facial markings stark against skin pulled taut.
"No. My contact's gone silent and I have no way of knowing who was hit. I'm getting data through other sources. What I can tell you is that the Net is in chaos."
Talin wanted to hug Sascha. She knew too well the confused feelings of an abandoned child. Part of her would always miss the stranger who had left her at the clinic door. Then Sascha lifted her head and her eyes told Talin the sentiment had been felt and appreciated.
It disconcerted her to be in a room with someone who could sense her emotions, but she figured she'd get used to it, as she had to the changelings' ability to scent her moods.
"Dorian," Clay said into the silence, "do the report."
"Right." He glanced at Judd. "This is in relation to the classified data you gave us."
Judd's expression iced over. "That wasn't for public use."
"The location is still airtight," Clay said, meeting Judd's eyes, two predators weighing each other up. "But we've got another problem."
After a tense moment, Judd nodded. "Go."
Dorian ran through the events that had led to the rescue of the children with military efficiency. Then he told them about the woman he'd followed from the point where they'd picked up the children. "Our contact."
"She stuck around to make sure they were okay," Talin said, unsurprised.
Dorian nodded. "That's my take - she was heading to a hidden access point." He smiled at Judd's sudden alertness. "She said she doesn't support the Implant Protocol, but that she's being forced to work on it because she's the best."
Judd's eyes turned assessing. "What did she look like?"
"Skin like hot chocolate, dark hair, tall, built like a woman should be, pale eyes - couldn't catch the color with the distance. Sound familiar?"
Talin wondered at Dorian's sensuous description, but no one else seemed to notice. More to the point, Judd's response to the oral sketch was immediate. "Yes. What else did she say?"
"That in return for saving Jon and Noor, what she wants us to do is kidnap her kid. The boy - Keenan - is being held hostage by the Council as a way to ensure her good behavior."
Growls sounded around the table. Talin might've been startled had she not already known what these people were like, the lengths they would go to to protect children.
Sascha, one hand still clasped in Lucas's, sat forward. "Why? Why does her behavior rely on the child?"
Mercy choked on the muffin she'd grabbed. "He's her baby. Reason enough."
"No." Sascha shook her head. "Not for the Psy."
"Psy don't feel," Tamsyn agreed, "so the connection can't be emotional."
"Or maybe it is," Sascha said, tone thoughtful. "We know nothing about this woman - it may be that she's close to breaching Silence."
"I got frostbite just talking to her," Dorian muttered. "Trust me, she's a fucking emotional refrigerator. But she's right about the kid. He's four years old and in the hands of the Council."
"We have to help him." Talin spoke up. She might be sitting in the midst of some of the most powerful people in San Francisco, but she was no coward. And she had the strength of a leopard at her side. "No matter why she did it, she got Jon and Noor out."