Chapter 21

The MPD's North American HQ was situated in the heart of Manhattan's Financial District, only a few scant blocks from the actual, literal Wall Street. The impressive skyscraper boasted an all-glass exterior, with a vaguely oval shape except for the top three floors, which were black, perfectly circular, and sat on the rest of the structure like a fancy hat.

That was where the vote to determine the leadership of the Dissimulation Department would begin in a few minutes.

We were cutting it extremely close considering Kade was probably mingling with the mythic elites on the top floors and could unleash the weapon—and any other nefarious Consilium orders he was following—at any moment.

Captain Blythe, Vinny, and Tim had gone in. The vote was taking place on the upper three floors—right inside the skyscraper's stylish concrete chapeau—and they would head straight for the topmost level. Darius and Girard would scope out the second-to-top level, but they'd opted to use an "unofficial" entrance instead of the front doors. I had no idea which entrance that was, but I assumed it wouldn't involve any friendly discussions about their various weaponry with helpful security personnel.

Lienna and I would cover the bottom level of the hat, which itself was still upwards of sixty floors off the ground.

Our primary target was Benjamin Kade. Director Ashbluff of the DD was our secondary target, and our tertiary targets were Commissioner Ruben Sparks of the IA, Director Peter Druthers of Obscura Influentia, and Director Stavros Griva of Special Investigations.

Tim, who'd taken the role of our strategist, had drilled all of us on the names and faces of said targets on the way to New York. He'd also compiled all the details we knew about Kade's crimes and his clairsentient slipperiness, as well as the information Vinny had acquired about the bastard's time with DRAFT. He'd created an unsettling behavior profile of our main target and a short list of likely scenarios to unfold during the vote. At the very top of the list was the expectation that Kade, blood-loving psychopath that he was, would want a front-row seat for whatever violence and mayhem he induced.

I exhaled slowly as Lienna and I ascended the wide steps to the main entrance of the towering skyscraper. Deep evening shadows sucked up the fading warmth as the sun slipped out of sight behind the famous Manhattan skyline.

Our lack of knowledge about the danger was the worst part. How many of the Consilium faithful were lingering among the harmless vote attendees? How and where would Kade make his move? Did he plan to unleash the Viking queen's super elemental magic on the Special Committee while they tried to place their votes? Or would he go after Director Ashbluff?

Inside the spacious lobby, the security was downright robust: multitudinous MPD agents with protective gear searching bags, giving pat-downs, and employing detectors of both the metal and magic variety. There was even a pair of K-9 agents, which, assuming you enjoyed having five fingers on each hand, didn't look like the kind of pooches you'd want to pet.

This was one of the rare occasions where MagiPol subtlety was not required: each agent wore a ball cap with the MPD logo emblazoned on the front, making it clear to everyone who was in charge.

An agent scanned my badge, which brought my face up onto a screen at her station. She compared it to my own real-life face then waved me toward another agent who scanned me with his dual detectors. I wasn't carrying any artifacts, but when Lienna's turn came, they hauled her aside to inspect her satchel.

After a series of questions, during which my partner vastly downplayed the lethal nature of her magical trinkets, and a close examination of her Rubik's cube, she was let through. Carrying artifacts on your person wasn't prohibited, even in a tightly secured venue like this, but out-and-out weapons were a no-go.

Lienna and I rode the elevator up to the sixty-second level, which was the lowest of the triple-layered event center, with half a dozen men in suits speaking rapid Italian.

My partner and I were dressed for the occasion as well. Blythe had grudgingly stopped at both our places to grab an appropriate change of clothes: for me, the expensive three-piece threads from my Quebec adventure with Darius, and for Lienna, a perfectly respectable—but not nearly as wallet-draining—charcoal pantsuit paired with a silky powder-blue blouse.

The elevator doors slid open, letting us out onto a ring-shaped concourse that surrounded the circular auditorium where the main event would occur. At least a hundred well-dressed mythic elites milled about and made small talk. Stationed at regular intervals were more geared agents, ready for trouble. Did these votes always have so much security, or had they taken Blythe's warning seriously?

Lienna caught my eye, then pulled a wireless earpiece from her pocket and tucked it into place. Following suit, I stuffed mine into my ear. A few quick taps on my phone connected me to the rest of the team.

"Jack Bauer, reporting for duty," I said, scanning the ever-moving crowd for bald heads. Surprisingly, everyone in sight had hair.

"Any sign of our targets?" Lienna asked like a proper professional agent on a secret mission.

"Not yet," Blythe responded. "We've covered half of the third level."

"Nothing on the second level," came Darius's smooth voice.

"We're starting our search," Lienna informed them.

"Remember Kade's profile," Tim added. "He might be hiding in plain sight."

I offered my arm to Lienna, and she tucked her fingers into the crook of my elbow as we started a clockwise trek around the ring. The curved hallway was almost pure white—a pearlescent marble that made up the ceiling, floor, and walls. We passed a cocktail bar with a short queue of black-suited mythics. This event felt more like a highfalutin shindig for the one percent than a secretive political election.

That wasn't strictly a problem, except it had attracted an inconvenient number of strangers to the upper levels of the building. The Special Committee had around three hundred members, but there were easily twice as many mythics here.

Any of them could be a Consilium goon ready to lend a helping hand to Kade's inevitable havoc-wreaking.

Lienna and I made our way slowly through the clusters of chatting attendees. My gaze snapped from face to face, looking for anything suspicious, and I was hyper-aware of everyone who looked my way. Were their gazes lingering too long? Were they tracking my progress along the concourse? Were they enemies who recognized me as the psycho warper the Consilium inexplicably wanted to capture?

Part of me really hoped I could remain anonymous. The other part of me knew our best shot at stopping Kade hinged on my presence being known.

Over the course of our continent-hopping world tour, Lienna hadn't had enough downtime to concoct a spell that would undermine Kade's clairsentience. Thus, on Darius's orders, Girard had brought some extra supplies from the Crow and Hammer.

The first helpful addition was a universal antidote, which would protect us from the most common potions Kade or anyone else might try to splatter us with. The second was an anti-telethesian potion. Since anti-clairsentient tonics weren't something the average alchemist had kicking around, Lienna had suggested an alternative that would dampen our brainwaves enough to significantly reduce Kade's ability to sense all of us.

Well, almost all of us. I'd skipped the anti-brainwaves brew. We didn't want to smother my Morris essence; we were letting it shine bright and bold for any psychic to see.

Because I was the bait.

Lienna and I passed an art exhibition featuring a medley of paintings and sculptures, presumably detailing the MPD's many victories in the abstract. I twitched my shoulders, itching from the paranoid feeling of eyes watching me. Under the guise of stopping to admire the bronze bust of a medieval MPD visionary, I looked back the way we'd come, scanning the ever-shifting crowd.

Minutes ticked past as we painstakingly navigated toward the opposite end of the concourse. My pulse drummed, gradually increasing in tempo like an EDM song revving up for its bassy breakdown. Kade could unleash the weapon at any moment. I wanted to sprint down the corridor, shouting for everyone to get the hell out of here before it was too late.

"I have eyes on Commissioner Sparks," Girard said abruptly. "He's walking with two other men—his aides, I think."

"Stay on his tail," Darius replied. "I'll keep searching for the other targets."

Splitting up sounded like a terrible idea, but I wouldn't agent-splain covert operations to the Mage Assassin and his first officer.

"Nothing yet on this level," I said as Lienna turned slowly to survey every angle of the concourse. "You got anything, Blythe?"

Several seconds of silence on the earpiece dragged by. Then a few seconds more. Lienna turned to me, her eyes darkening with unease.

An eardrum-piercing crackle burst through the tiny speaker in my ear, the sound blown out beyond recognition.

"Captain Blythe?" I repeated sharply. "Vinny? Tim? Are you there?"

Nothing.

Urgency and adrenaline surged through me. "Darius?"

"Still connected," he replied, a new tension in his voice. "I'm heading for the upper level to find the others."

I swore under my breath. What the hell was going on? What could've silenced our level-three team simultaneously without warning? Had they lost signal?

"We have to finish our pass around this level before we can help them," Lienna whispered, gripping my arm. "This is where we're most likely to find Kade."

I glanced toward the inner wall of the concourse, where two black-suited agents flanked a wide doorway. Through the open auditorium doors, I could glimpse a few hundred evenly spaced chairs, a raised dais in the center, and the bold black lines of a massive Arcana array that spanned the entire floor—a spell that, according to Darius, might cause future Kit a considerable headache.

"I'm on the third floor." Darius's low voice crackled. "I'm being followed. Two men in black suits."

Followed? I looked back over my shoulder. There were dozens of men in suits. How in the name of Fred Astaire was I supposed to discern which of them were enemies?

"I can't tell if we have a tail," I muttered. "Any sign of the others?"

"Not yet. Girard, where is Sparks now?"

For the second time, we were met with silence instead of an ally's voice.

"Shit," I hissed. "Something is wrong."

Lienna grabbed my hand. "Come on."

She hauled me forward at a pace so brisk that, compared to the ambling throng, we might as well have been sprinting. I elbowed a man in a blue tux out of my way as we sped along the concourse with exactly zero subterfuge.

I glanced back again—and saw two black-suited men striding in our wake, close behind and matching our swift clip.

"We're being followed too," I growled. "Darius, where are you?"

"Still on the top floor. No sign yet of Aurelia and the others, but I gave my tails the slip."

Of course he had. Maybe it was time for Lienna and me to vanish too.

"Walk into that big group there," I told Lienna in an undertone. "I'm going to invisi-warp us."

Nodding, she reached for her cat's eye necklace.

"No, not yet." I gave her a tight-lipped smile. "I can exclude your mind for now. Let's save it for when we really need it."

"Got it."

We made a beeline into the middle of a conversing group of old men. As we wove between them, I launched my halluci-bomb, stretching it to cover the hundreds of minds in the crowded concourse.

I made duplicates of us both that veered off in one direction, while I guided Lienna to the outer wall. I directed our fake versions toward the bathrooms, then dropped the warp once they'd entered.

Lienna and I lurked near the coat check, watching the two suited men who'd been following us pull up short outside the bathrooms. As one of them turned, I saw his lips moving—then noticed the flesh-colored earpiece he wore. Who was he reporting to?

I focused on his mind, trying to sneak a peek at his thoughts without losing my grip on the halluci-bomb that was keeping Lienna and me unseen.

A screech pierced my right eardrum. I swore and yanked my earpiece out, Lienna doing the same. Our eyes met as I cautiously lifted it back to my ear. The deafening screech had gone silent.

"Darius?" I queried.

Nothing.

Lienna and I stared at each other. Our team had disappeared, leaving the two of us on our own. We had no idea what had happened to the others, we hadn't found Kade, and the Consilium could be seconds away from unleashing their weapon.

What the hell were we supposed to do now?

Technology had failed us, and my five human senses weren't a whole lot of good at this point either. Which left only magic.

During our mile-high planning session aboard the private jet, Tim had made it abundantly clear that his telepathy would be less than useful amidst a veritable ocean of brainwaves—and as soon as I closed my eyes in an attempt to tune in to the presence of the minds around me, I experienced what he'd been talking about firsthand.

Instantly, a tidal wave of minds overwhelmed my gray matter. I honed my focus, sheering away the unfamiliar minds, desperately searching for those of my friends.

Darius, Blythe, Vinny, Tim—I had to find one of them. Just one. They had to be nearby. They couldn't all have disappeared. They couldn't all be unconscious… or dead.

My psychic senses stretched, my hold on the invisi-warp getting fuzzier. Lienna let out a sudden gasp as I lost my grip on the little bubble of exclusion I'd created to keep her out of my warp.

But that little bit of freed bandwidth crystalized the minds around me—and I recognized one of them.

Except it didn't belong to any of my teammates.

My eyes flew open, and I spun on my heels. Standing in the shadows, almost hidden beside a rack of posh overcoats, was a heavy-shouldered man in an MPD ball cap, the brim pulled down to hide his face.

The man tilted his head enough to reveal the sinister smirk stretching his mouth. His lips moved, forming two words I didn't need psychic power to interpret.

"Hello, Kit."