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library had belonged to Marcus, and Max took all slights against him,
intentional or not, very seriously. His face remained impassive, and he leaned
back in his chair, arms folded over his chest.
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Bella, ignorant of her affront, continued speaking. "It appears there was a
breakdown in Movement communication inFrance during the Nazi occupation. A
handful of assassins foundthemselves unable to contact headquarters or track
their quarry. They turned to divination to reestablish communication and
monitor the whereabouts of their mark.
"Though in this case it would be unrealistic to try and open a line of
communication with the Movement, we could certainly use those same means to
glean information about the Oracle and what she intends to do now that she is
free."
"Or Nathan could do it." Max's voice seemed overloud, and we all turned to
stare at him in varying degrees of horror as he continued. "He has a blood tie
with the Soul Eater. If he's working with the Oracle, Nathan would know it."
At the thought of Nathan making contact with his terrifying sire, the one
who'd possessed and tormented him, the blood in my veins turned to ice. "No!"
My denial was echoed by Bella. "He was possessed once by the power of his
sire. My spell freed him, but I cannot guarantee I could do so again."
"She's right," I agreed vehemently. "Nathan, you can't even consider doing
something like that He would find you in a minute."
Beside me, Nathan drummed his fingertips on the table. "I think you're right.
We try Bella's way, first."
Max snorted. "Listen, I'm not trying to shoot down the one solution anyone
has come up with, but I'm not sure this is exactly the most efficient way to
go about finding the Oracle and figuring out what her plans are."
"What would be more efficient?" Bella demanded. "Traveling the world
door-to-door, knocking and asking if the Oracle is inside?"
Rolling his eyes, Max turned to Nathan and me. "Listen, you guys can't really
believe this is our best bet? Random patterns of cards and gazing into a
crystal ball?"
Though I felt as though I was betraying him, we didn't have much else to go
on. I spread my hands helplessly. "Well, it couldn't hurt to try. If the
Movement has fallen apart, it's just a matter of time until every non-Movement
vampire figures it out and we end up with a crisis on our hands."
"So, we're going to prevent this from happening with our super New Age mind
rays?" He shook his head. "I'msorry, I just think we're barking up the wrong
tree."
Nathan grimaced as though he hated being cast in the peacekeeper role.
"Listen, Bella hasn't been able to contact anyone. I've been out of the
Movement for two years, so I don't know anyone's number or location anymore.
You might be able to track somebody down, but even if you do, how are we going
to find the Oracle? We've got documented evidence that this approach works.
Why not try it before we declare ourselves royally screwed?"
"Max, you were still in the Movement. You have to have the company directory
or something, right?" I hoped he did. I didn't like the looks of those chicken
bones any more than he did.
Max shook his head. "It was Movement policy never to reveal the identities of
their assassins, even to other assassins."
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"Anyassassins who knew each other, like Max and me, chose to contact one
another outside of the Movement." Nathan glanced briefly at Max. "Sometimes I
wonder why I chose to contact him."
"It was a policy that applied only to vampires," Bella added. "The werewolves
involved in the Movement were all from the same pack. You would consider that
family, or extended family. We have a code of honor, and our own consequences
if we should break it. But the vampires& imagine if one vampire knew how to
find all of the assassins? And then they found themselves in the company of a
creature like the Soul Eater?"
"So, they kept your locations, and to some extent, your identities, secret so
the information couldn't be tortured out of you?" I looked to Nathan for
confirmation.
"Or sold to the highest bidder."He gestured to Max. "Max and I became
acquainted when we were given an assignment together. But if we hadn't both
agreed that it would be handy to know another assassin nearby or relatively
nearby we might not have exchanged contact information and stayed in touch."
"But what about the meeting?You had a dozen Movement assassins in your
bookshop." I shuddered at the thought of some of them coming after us as we'd
been living peacefully in the apartment upstairs.
"That was a strike team Rachel personally assembled. They already knew who I
was and where I could be found. And I trusted them all for a reason." Nathan [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]