Wolf Rain (Psy-Changeling Trinity #3) - Nalini Singh Page 0,68
of the WindHaven falcons to fly over and double-check their assessment. “Falcons confirmed both were basically shells with some window dressing. No signs of actual habitation.”
This third address was in the heart of San Francisco.
His wolf stirred.
Alexei had asked Judd how far Renault could teleport regularly given his official Gradient level. The San Francisco location was well within his range if he needed to go back and forth to the bunker. Not only that, according to the financial records Brenna had hacked, the bills paid for this property for consumables such as energy fluctuated through the seasons—as they would for a household in use.
“One of his few mistakes,” Brenna said after bringing up the bills. “That, or he believed these records couldn’t be hacked.” A snort. “I could hack the PsyNet if only I could find a way to jack in.”
She used deft movements of her right hand to manipulate the large screen. “Last automatic upload to the billing server was eight hours ago—and someone was doing things at that address that required energy. Arrogant bastard could be hunkered down there—maybe he wants to be nearby so he can try to grab Memory again.”
Alexei pressed a hard kiss to her jaw. “You’re a fucking queen. Send any updates to my phone. We’re going to move.”
It took him less than ten minutes to put together an assault team.
Hawke was a given—he needed to question Memory’s captor about the bunker. Matthias because he was an extra body in the den whose absence wouldn’t cause a hole in their defenses. Judd because having a Tk along seemed a good move when they were dealing with another Tk.
The fifth member of their team was Sing-Liu. D’Arn’s deadly human mate could climb and move as quietly as any cat and throw a knife with pinpoint accuracy. She could also appear small and curvy and harmless, and was willing to play “simpering damsel,” if necessary, to throw Renault off the scent.
“I’ll take the humiliation out of your hide later,” she warned Alexei.
Prior to leaving the den, Alexei called and asked to be put in touch with the leopard on patrol in the area around Renault’s home. He got Emmett Schaeffer, a rough-hewn soldier with sharp eyes, who promised to keep the townhouse under surveillance and follow anyone who came out. “Can’t follow a teleporter,” he pointed out. “But he’s probably asleep—no movement that I can see. External security lights are on, but nothing inside.”
Had Emmett said Renault was there and active, Alexei would’ve swallowed his need to personally haul Renault in for Memory’s vengeance, and asked the leopards to go in. “If that changes, you let me know.”
Surveillance sorted, he and the team decided to utilize Judd’s teleportation skills from the halfway point—it would speed things up without wiping him out. Judd had once told Alexei that teleporting SnowDancers had become exponentially easier for him a year after he blood-oathed fealty to Hawke and became a ranked SnowDancer lieutenant. As if the bond with Hawke created a pathway of psychic trust with all the members of the pack.
Alexei didn’t care too much about the mechanics, just that Judd could get them to the location quickly. It was worth the weird split-second disorientation that came with being teleported.
Once in the city, it took them a short few seconds to make their way up to Renault’s townhouse—Judd had asked Emmett to send through a photograph of the street, then used a distinctive house down the block as a visual reference for the teleport. Just in case Memory’s abductor happened to be looking out the window when five strangers appeared out of nowhere.
It wasn’t yet dawn, but multiple houses had light glowing from their windows as people got out of bed and downed their first coffee in preparation for the day ahead. Another half hour and some folks would start leaving for work.
Emmett emerged from the shadows as Alexei first set eyes on the target home. “I thought I smelled wolf,” the leopard said, a faint smile on his face and his jaw rough with stubble.
The other man was one of the more laid-back cats in DarkRiver, but he was also a lethally skilled senior soldier. More critical to Alexei, Emmett had a mother who was currently in the midst of running the second study ever done on changeling rogues. Keelie Schaeffer had sent a message to all predatory changeling groups around the world, requesting dialogue with anyone impacted by a rogue.