Chapter Twenty-Nine

If there was one thing that Carwyn loved, it was an American-style diner. They could be glossy, retro reproductions or gritty, dive-like holes-in-the-wall.

He loved the smell of burnt coffee, bacon grease, and hairspray. The scent of cigarette smoke that clung to the older staff. He even liked the cracked vinyl booths, though he could rarely fit into them.

"Oh fuck me, you're in heaven, aren't ya?" Brigid's smile was amused.

"This is brilliant." It was a retro diner, but one that hadn't been reproduced. The red vinyl booths were well-kept but cracked with age, and the chrome detailing along the edges was original and shined to a bright mirror finish.

The menu was on a board posted over the counter, and a young woman with blue hair stood waiting to greet them, wearing a white apron over her jeans and vintage bowling shirt.

"Hey, welcome to Janie's. Two?" She grabbed laminated menus. "You eating here or?—"

"Meeting friends," Brigid said quickly, pointing to the redhead at the end of the diner who was already sitting down.

"Oh, for sure!" The girl quickly ushered them down the aisle to the large round booth that anchored the diner. "Hey, Summer. Didn't realize you were expecting more."

The young vampire looked up, her blue eyes meeting Carwyn's. She smiled, and his heart eased a little bit.

"Yeah, I wasn't sure if they were gonna make it in time." She looked at the waitress. "Thanks, Rose."

"No problem." She turned to Carwyn and Brigid. "What can I get you to drink?"

"Coffee," they both said at once.

Carwyn and Brigid had learned that tea was best left on the other side of the ocean unless they were making it themselves.

Brigid sat next to Summer, and Carwyn slid in behind her, angling into the booth the best he could. He looked at the two young men who were sitting across from Summer and staring at both of them with wide eyes.

"Hiya," Carwyn said. "How is it, lads?" He slumped his shoulders and turned on his best "friendly father" voice. "Thanks for coming to speak with us."

The dark-haired young man who looked South Asian turned to his friend. "Oh, I didn't think we had a choice about it. Can we just?—?"

"Nah, he's just being nice." Summer cut him off. "Katya wants you to talk to them and answer their questions."

Carwyn smiled and said nothing, but the two young men seemed a little more at ease when they turned back to him.

The other young man looked like a surfer from California, and his ball cap was turned backward on his head with a fluffy sprout of curls poking over his forehead like blond broccoli. "So Ravi and I, we take turns with the gigs, right? But we follow the letter. We're looking for a permanent position. We've never skimmed cash or anything like that. We're honest."

"We wouldn't think of it," Ravi said. "Callum and I are very clear with our clients. We're a team, and that means if one of us if off duty, the other is on. We cover all kinds of clients—we don't discriminate against elements—and we are completely discreet."

"And honest," Callum said again.

Brigid piped up. "We're not worried about you skimmin', lads. We just need to know where you took the cash you picked up last week from the exchange."

Ravi and Callum exchanged a look.

"Listen," Callum said, "I just said we're discreet. This was a new client, but we protect all clients' privacy like we're regular employees. That's how we stay in business."

"We don't need to know who," Carwyn said. "You won't know their real name anyway. But Katya needs to know where it was taken."

Summer added, "Guys, this is a territorial security thing, okay? I promise Katya is not trying to jam you up or hurt your reputation, but she needs to know." Summer wiggled her fingers. "You know I can get you to answer if you don't cooperate."

Ravi sat back. "Summer, that is not cool."

"I thought we were friends," Callum said. "Why would you?—?"

"Territorial." Summer spoke slowly. "Security. These are not people you want to work for, guys. We need a location."

Both Ravi and Callum were silent for a long moment, and then Callum muttered, "Dock on the west side of Granville Island."

"Dude." Ravi hit his arm. "Callum?—"

"Thank you," Brigid said quietly. "The people you took the job from are dangerous sociopaths who've attacked humans and vampires along the Alaskan coast. They're extremely violent, and they're not under Katya's aegis. If they contact you again…" She slid a card across the table. "Call us immediately. Hide. Don't meet them. You won't be safe."

As soon as Brigid slid across the card, the boys' faces drained of color.

"Thanks, lads." Carwyn leaned across and held out his hand to shake. "None of us think less of you. You know Katya wouldn't ask you to violate that trust unless it was a true risk, right?"

Ravi shook Carwyn's hand and shrugged. "Yeah, she's cool."

"I appreciate it, y'all," Summer added. "You need to take off?"

They nodded, clearly ready to leave.

"I'll get your tab," Summer added. "It's the least I can do."

The young men stood, and the blond one hesitated before he walked away.

"If anyone asks…," Callum started. "I mean?—"

"I was asking you to acquire a large-screen television for my boat," Carwyn said. "Obviously. I'm going to email you the details now that I know I can trust you."

"Awesome." Callum smiled and looked at Summer. "See you, Summer."

Ravi grabbed his friend's sleeve and hurried them out of the diner, leaving Summer, Brigid, and Carwyn alone.

"Look at you." Carwyn smiled at the girl they'd been hired to find years ago. Summer had survived, but she'd decided to give her mortality to Katya in exchange for revenge on the vampires who took her and her boyfriend. "You're looking happy."

"Yeah, my family's finally used to it, I think." She smiled awkwardly. "Mom and Dad came out last summer. Even said how nice the city was, which shocked me to hell."

"Eh, the Mackenzies aren't city people," Brigid said. "As a rule."

Summer belonged to an immortal clan in the Carolinas consisting of human and vampire family members, some of whom were related to Carwyn by marriage. She was a young cousin, in his way of thinking, and he'd been keeping track of her.

"Katya says you're thriving here," he said. "Do you know the area the boys were talking about?"

"I do." Her Southern accent was just a hint after years in the Pacific Northwest. "I know the area anyway. We have the time and the location now. We'll be able to find out where they went and who they talked to as long as there are security cameras."

"Is that likely?" Brigid asked.

Summer nodded. "In that area? Definitely. There are a lot of businesses around there. Lang should be able to hack his way in. As long as they still have footage from last week, he'll find it."

Brigid stood over the shoulder of a young man with curly dark hair that fell into his eyes and tattoos all over his neck. He was sitting in a dark office with no windows even though he was human. The strange cave looked like it belonged to a wizard in a fantasy novel, and the walls were lined with shelves filled with books, small figures of dragons and soldiers, and several reproduction swords.

Over the long counter that served as the young man's desk were three large posters, one of a popular sci-fi movie character, another with the slogan Can't Stop the Signal, and the last emblazoned with the words: I Smoke and I Know Things.

The young man's name was Lang, and Brigid guessed he was Katya's version of their Lee.

"So there's a bunch of fishing charters going in and out of those docks all year round." He typed as he talked. "All I had to do was hack into their security systems, so" —he rolled his eyes— "opposite of hard." He did something on the computer, and color footage jumped onto the screen. "No cap, Ravi and Cal are good guys. They wouldn't mess with a chaos vamp, so whoever this was must have seemed legit."

She was mostly keeping up. "You think Ravi and Callum didn't know who they were meeting?"

"Bet," Lang said. "I don't recognize this guy, but the boat?" He whistled. "Whatever vamp is bankrolling all this has money, and lots of it."

It was Ravi on the screen, and he was carrying a duffel bag and looked like any average Vancouverite coming from the gym and heading home. He walked over to a large yacht with a back deck, spoke to a man in a raincoat, and the man showed him something on his phone.

Ravi scanned the screen with his own phone, nodded, and handed over the bag.

"Most of the gig day workers use security codes to verify," Lang said. "Keeps everyone safe from influence, you know?"

"Brilliant," Brigid muttered. "A human under vampire influence would still have to verify a code, like a digital receipt. And if they couldn't, you'd know somethin' had gone wrong even if you couldn't remember."

"Exactly," Lang said. "Code doesn't verify, you know someone got scammed. You may still be up shit creek and out of money, but it helps keep people honest."

Summer said, "Now this is during the day, but Lang already sent the boat's registration number." She pointed at the screen. "See there? We've already looked it up, and it's registered to a shell corporation in the Cayman Islands."

"What's the next step?" Brigid asked. "How do ya track a boat?"

"For sure, for sure, my lady vampire." Lang started typing again. "Every boat—even ones owned by shell companies—should be hooked into the automatic identification system run by the International Maritime Organization, especially if they're docking all legit-like in the city."

"An automatic ID system?" Carwyn asked.

"Kind of like flight control for maritime vessels, my dude." Lang clicked on a few more buttons. "So I don't know exactly who owns this ship, but I can tell you where it was last week." He brought up a map with tiny arrows all over it. His cursor hovered over a purple arrow. "And I can tell you it left Vancouver and two days later it was docked in Petersburg, Alaska."

"Where?" Brigid leaned in to see a narrow strait of water north of Ketchikan and south of Juneau with glaciers on one side and a narrow network of sea and islands on the other. "Has it been there before? Can ya tell?"

"I can get historical data with the IMO number." He tapped more keys quickly. "It docked in Wrangell one time and Port Protection another time, but it looks like Petersburg was the place he kept going back to." Lang tapped the map. "So I'd say whatever deliveries he was making, it's in this area."

Brigid murmured, "There're so many places a large ship could hide. Even with wind vampires lookin', it could take weeks."

"Maybe not as many as you'd think." Summer leaned on her back leg and hooked her hands in her pockets. "Check with a local to be sure, but this area is known as the Wrangell Narrows, and it's not very deep. You're looking for a larger vessel, right? Sounded like a small cruise ship or a large yacht?" She nodded at the surveillance video. "Something a lot bigger than this fishing boat, I'm thinking."

Carwyn nodded. "That's our guess."

"Petersburg isn't a deepwater port. Nothing in the Wrangell Narrows is going to be deep enough for a ship like you're thinking." She moved her finger up the map. "Now above that, Frederick Sound is a better bet. I think you'd have more luck looking in that area."

"Either way." Carwyn nodded at Lang. "We've got someplace to start, and that's an improvement over before. Thank you, lad."

"Straight facts, my lord and my lady." Lang reached over and held up his fist.

He was odd but friendly. Brigid bumped her knuckles with the young man. "We owe ya one. Good work."

"You owe me?" Lang smiled a little. "Dope."