Garden of Dreams and Desires - Kristen Painter Page 0,103
mentioned. They had squat muscular bodies and dusty skin that looked like they’d rolled in gray flour. “You must be…” She bit her lip. What had Fenton said their names were?
“Guz,” one rumbled.
“Rat,” the other grunted.
Cy stood up. “They’re goblin fae. Not much for words. But super-strong, very loyal and basically indestructible. Guz once took two bullets in his left shoulder.” Cy shook his head. “Never even knew it until he tried to go to the aquarium a few weeks later and set the security scanner off.”
Guz grinned, showing off teeth that looked like slightly sharpened sugar cubes. “Like fish. Fish good.”
“Fish are great.” Oh-kay. Harlow gave the curious pair a little smile. “Nice to have you on the team.” She gave Cy a questionable look.
“They’re fine, I swear,” he whispered.
With a nod, she addressed the rest of the group. “Can we hit that warehouse now? Get Augustine out of there?”
“About that,” Dulcinea started. The hesitant look on her face gave Harlow a sinking feeling. “Right before he went to check on you, Fenton had me call in a backup request to our contact at the police department. They sent a few unmarked cars to the location. Got fidgety while they waited and decided to do a little recon.”
Harlow leaned forward when Dulcinea stopped talking. “And?”
Dulcinea sighed. “They searched it top to bottom. It’s empty. No sign anyone’s been there in a few days.”
Harlow sank into the nearest chair. The air in her lungs no longer sufficient, she opened her mouth and tried to breathe. The loss of the lead hit her like a punch to the gut.
Cy sat beside her. “We’ll start patrols, we’ll canvass the streets, talk to anyone who—”
“What about security cameras?” Dulcinea asked. “Augie said you’d set up some kind of thing to search for Rue using facial recognition and security feeds?”
Harlow looked at the changeling. “Genius.”
Dulcinea nodded. “Augie said it was good—”
“No. You. That idea.” She pushed back to her feet. “I need to get back to the computer lab.” She jogged down the hall and to the room that held some of the most amazing equipment she’d ever laid hands on. She pushed the door open, stripped off her gloves and threw herself into the chair at the station she’d used to hack Grantham’s GPS.
“What are you going to do?” Cy asked.
“Hmm?” She looked behind her, only then realizing the whole crew had followed her in. They stared back at her. Except for Rat and Guz, who seemed mesmerized by some of the blinking lights. “I cloned Augustine’s phone not long after I moved in. I used it to track him once when the vampires were an issue. Watched him kill one right in front of me.”
“Cool,” Sydra whispered.
“I didn’t exactly think so at the time.” But things had changed a lot since then. She pulled out her LMD, set it on the remote access port and logged into its memory through the computer’s mainframe. She maneuvered her way through the data, calling up the clone she’d installed and transferring it to the monitor in front of her. A moment later, the monitor flickered to life and a map appeared, a single blinking red icon lighting the black-and-white schematic. She pointed to it. “There, what’s that?”
Dulcinea leaned in. “Nine Twenty-one Canal Street.” She thought for a second. “That’s the location of the Ritz-Carlton.”
Harlow zipped through the Web to the Ritz-Carlton’s servers, finding her way into their system without a snag. The screen shifted to reflect her activity. She pushed her way into the guest registry, filtering the names with a single mental command.
The name she’d been looking for flashed on the monitor. A few softly muttered curses from those behind her filled the air.
“Are you kidding me?” Dulcinea stabbed a finger at the monitor. “Does that mean what I think it means?”
Harlow stood. “Yes. Augustine’s being held in the Ritz-Carlton.” She glanced at the name listed next to the Grand Presidential Suite. “And Senator Pellimento didn’t even bother to register under a fake name.”
“Yes.” Harlow looked around. “Anyone ever been to the Ritz? Because I haven’t and I don’t think we can get there by mirror if we haven’t actually been there, right?”
“Right,” Cy answered. “And no, not me.”
“Not me, either,” Dulcinea said.
“I’m out, too.” Sydra shrugged.
“I have,” Nekai said. “My sister is on the housekeeping staff there. Or was.” He frowned. “They fired her after the covenant was broken. They cited some bogus reason, but I’m