“Vulture calling Big Bird,” a voice called through the radio, “The canary has left the cage, and brought the little chick. Follow them or steal the bird seeds?”
Mika sighed. She valued agent Rocco’s skills, but not his theatrics. She opened the voice channel.
“Ignore her for now. We have no reason to believe she’s running away,” she replied coldly, ignoring the wince on the other end. She was not going to join Rocco’s game of ‘guess what the codewords mean’.
“Little chick carrying a suitcase. Problem?”
That fit with the information they had gleaned through the laser microphone. The girl, Tina, was supposed to leave today.
“No, leave them alone. You have permission to enter the building. Don’t leave any traces. Walker has made it clear we are to avoid suspicion for now.” She did not mention that he should have surveillance up in case they returned early. If he couldn’t figure that out himself, he wasn’t going to keep the job for long.
After a moment, the reply came through the radio. “Suspicion may already be raised, Big Bird. The canary appeared excessively nervous. The little chick appeared largely unaffected.” Silence for a few seconds. “Also, my feathers are wet, Big Bird. Might be hard to avoid all traces.”
Mika was aware of the possibility that Miss Ivory may have realized their suspicion. It mattered little, though. A little extra nervousness made any guilty party more likely to make mistakes. Besides, she had nowhere to run to: They could track her down at any time they wanted. In fact, her horse cart was showing its exact location on the screen in front of her, the GPS tracker working perfectly.
“Well, then, that’ll be your job to figure out, not mine. If you can’t do it, don’t attempt it. Walker does not expect to find any incriminating evidence inside.”
She heard a grunt on the radio. ‘Feathers wet’ indeed. She did not envy his job. The heavy rain had been drumming on the van’s roof for half a day already. She and the driver were the only members of the team who had not gotten thoroughly soaked.
“Permission to find a nest in the barn?” Rocco called back.
“As long as you don’t leave any traces of your presence, do what you like,” Mika confirmed.
She heard no reply, which was good. Rocco was the type who thought he was so funny. She tolerated him, but avoided sending any signals that might be misinterpreted as her encouraging him.
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Turning to the digital whiteboard, she added the latest note on the timeline: “Ivory left the farm with Tina 13.32” The whiteboard was already littered with all manner of notes from the investigation. She drew a line from the latest note to the big circle with Ivory inside.
Ivory was one of their biggest leads. There were several notes linking Martin Harper and Caroline Ivory together, among them ‘former classmate’ and ‘horse used in getaway’. They had not been able to prove that one of Ivory’s horses were involved, owing to the fact that they could not simply wade up to the horses and take hair samples without arising suspicion.
Another important note linked to Ivory was ‘possibly withholding information’, signed ‘Robbins’. He had come to the conclusion after talking with her, though he’d been less than certain. But it was a possible lead to follow up if the other lead didn’t pan out.
Walker and the two other agents were following the only other lead they had. Harper’s trace ended at an old house in the forest, and the bloodhounds had not been able to pick it up anywhere else. Walker had gone to personally see if his spells could find anything, but it was a long shot. Harper had, after all, avoided his spells once already. It was, however, possible they’d find the owner of the house.
The house had obviously been used very recently, as late as this week. If the owners had left voluntarily, they had not decided to bring a lot with them. Everything you expected in a house was there, even the toothbrush. From what they could tell, the owner had been an elderly woman, The question was, had she disappeared before, after, or during Harper visit there?
About an hour later, Walker returned from his excursion, dragging a lot of mud into the van. He went straight to the whiteboard to add the latest notes. Water dripped from his hair and clothes. As usual, he ignored Mika until he needed her.
He had specifically requested her as the coordinator for the investigation group. Like every recruit, she had been frightened at first, but now she only found him unnerving. What had she done to deserve his company? Most likely, her job. He seemed to value professional qualities over everything else.
She waited patiently while Walker methodically wrote down several notes. Glancing over his shoulder, Mika could see at least one reading “dead trail”. So not even his magic had been able to find anything more useful from that place.
Once he was fine, Walker turned to her, his movements so swift several water droplets escaped his hair and landed on her face. She quickly wiped them away.
“Request a mind mage,” he spoke in a voice as cold as his face. Before she could even acknowledge the order, his attention was back on the notes. You didn't last long in his company if you weren't quick on the uptake.
Mika could read between the lines. There was only one legitimate target for the mind mage. A mind mage could be invaluable for pulling secrets from unsuspecting targets. The most skilled would not even leave a memory of their encounter. Their powers did not work on Veiled individuals, but the council had plenty of legitimate targets outside the Veil, too.
For all their useful abilities, mind mages were incredibly rare. At least ones capable of gleaming secrets without destroying the target’s mind. Because of their dangerous powers, the Council tried to employ every single one they came across, and paid them well. Even so, as far as Mika knew, they’d have to fly one in for this task.
But they’d get their answers, that was for sure.