27. Chapter 27

Chapter 27

The three of us were now officially working together and it felt good to have another experienced person on the team. We sneaked down to the TAC office, but even though it was 10.30pm we could see the light was on from the big reception desk window. It looked like Captain Engell was still in there.

We retreated back to the breakroom between our dormitories. ‘When should we try again?’ Sidnee asked quietly.

‘Let’s give it until midnight,’ I suggested.

‘I agree,’ Danny said. ‘That way most everyone will be asleep, including the captain.’

‘We’ll go back to our room for now,’ I said. ‘That minimises the chance of us being discovered out of bed. We’ll meet here again in another hour and a half.’

We separated from Danny to go into our dorms. Sidnee gave me a silent nod as she lay down on her bed and I guessed we’d brush our teeth and fangs later. I climbed into bed and turned so that we were facing each other. ‘Listen, Engell told me he knows Thomas. Can you text him and get him to corroborate?’

She frowned. ‘I can try but he’s usually incommunicado when he’s hunting someone down. I don’t know when we’ll get a reply.’

I shrugged. ‘It’s worth a try.’

She retrieved her phone and sent a message to Patkotak, then settled back down and looked nervously at me. ‘What are we going to look for?’ she whispered.

I wasn’t sure, and that was the problem; it was Sergeant Marks who had suggested something financial might be going on. ‘I don’t know,’ I admitted. ‘I guess we’re looking for anything out of place.’

‘That’s what I was afraid of,’ she sighed.

‘I wish Fluffy and Connor could come,’ I said. ‘We could use some more eyes.’

Sidnee half-sat up in her bed as an idea struck her. ‘No way could Connor and Fluffy make it all the way in here because the security is too tight – but we do have other eyes! Why don’t you see if you can call Aoife again? She might be able to sneak around the office unseen!’

Now that was a genius idea. ‘That’s inspired. Maybe Aoife can rope in Petty, too, so he can guide us to whatever the fuck we should be looking at?’

Sidnee grimaced. ‘There is a fly in our ointment. Neither Petty nor Aoife are exactly quiet.’

‘I can tell Aoife we need quiet. She can manage an incognito mode.’ Probably.

‘But can Petty?’

‘Maybe not, but no one should be around to hear him. He’s the one with all the freaking answers. If we can get him to lead us to something…’

She nodded. ‘I hear you.’ She paused. ‘I really hope he doesn’t lead us to Smith’s body.’

‘Me too – for Danny’s sake.’

‘Where do you want to summon them?’

Margi started to snore loudly and we exchanged amused glances. ‘She sounds like a freight train. Please tell me I don’t sound like that!’ Sidnee joked.

‘Your snores are more delicate, more like the rumble of a car on the road,’ I reassured her.

‘Hey! I was kidding! I don’t snore!’

I laughed. ‘You totally do, Sid.’

‘Well, no one has ever complained about it!’ she huffed, folding her arms.

‘You’re too pretty to be kicked out of bed for a little light snoring.’

‘I am.’ She flashed me a grin before sobering. ‘We need to focus. Where are we going to summon Aoife?’

‘In the offices – at least no one will be around if she arrives wailing.’ I winced at the thought.

Sidnee rolled on to her back and stared up at the ceiling. ‘Should we let Gunnar know what’s up before we get our asses tossed out?’

‘Nah, let’s leave that as a surprise.’

‘Everyone loves surprises, right? And they don’t always have to be good ones!’

We chatted quietly until the clock rolled over to midnight and it was ninja o’clock, then we rolled out of bed and sneaked silently across the hall to wait for Danny. When he joined us, we slid downstairs in our stockinged feet. Sidnee and I were built for the night, so we led the way; we didn’t need anything other than the illuminated exit signs to light our way.

It was quiet, almost too quiet. The recruits were asleep upstairs and surely Captain Engell was finally in his fancy apartment suite; at least his office light was out. Like before, I climbed over the reception desk to the office. Sidnee was close behind me and Danny was bringing up the rear.

We took the key from the receptionist’s desk and let ourselves into Captain Engell’s office. Even with the door closed it wasn’t totally dark because the light over the front door was streaming through the reception window and giving plenty of light for a mer and a vampire. Ravens were diurnal, but when I turned to Danny his eyes were glowing slightly. It looked like the shifter had his own skills.

I quickly explained about summoning Aoife and Petty. ‘All right with me,’ he said. ‘As long as neither of them scream and get us caught.’

And wasn’t that the kicker? I looked at Sidnee. ‘You ready for me to call Aoife?’

She looked around nervously. ‘Yeah. Do it.’

I whispered, ‘Aoife I need your help.’ We waited. Nothing happened. Bugger.

‘Aoife Sullivan! Please come, it’s important!’ I said a little more loudly, although I wasn’t sure that it was my voice that called her because I always felt a tug in my chest when I summoned her. Maybe it was my witchy power; some day I’d know all my own secrets, dammit.

This time a wind whipped around my braid and Aoife’s pale form materialised in front of me. She had her translucent arms crossed over her chest and she was tapping her foot. Luckily, she was silent.

‘Cool,’ Danny murmured, and she flashed him a flirty smile.

I cleared my throat. ‘Thanks for coming, Aoife. I know it’s probably a pain, but we really need your help. Can you summon Petrovich for us? We have very little time to find out who is threatening the academy and how they’re doing it, and we don’t have a clue where to start. If you can get Petrovich to point out something, maybe we can stop whatever is upsetting him.’

By the time I’d finished, Aoife was looking intrigued. She opened her mouth. ‘Don’t say anything!’ I said sharply and held up my hand. ‘We have to keep quiet – but can you help us?’

She looked thoughtful then gave an uncertain shrug and faded from sight. Danny whispered, ‘Does that mean yes?’

‘I don’t know. I think so. I guess we snoop around while we wait to see if the spirits are joining the party.’

We separated and started searching through the papers on top of the desk and in the drawers. There was an old desktop computer on the desk – next to a shiny silver laptop.

Sidnee, who was more tech savvy than me, opened the laptop and stared. ‘It has a fingerprint scanner.’ Then she smiled. ‘But it also has this!’ She held up a small sticky note. ‘The password. This computer does either/or!’ She lifted her hands showily, cracked her knuckles and typed in the password. ‘I’m in!’ she crowed triumphantly.

I squatted next to her to see what she was looking at: a file labelled ‘Academy’. ‘I’m going with door number one,’ she said and clicked on it.

‘What the hell are you doing?’ An angry voice demanded. Uh-oh.

I looked up and mentally amended my ‘uh-oh’ to ‘oh fuck!’.