CHAPTER 56

Trust was great and all, but in my experience it was just a five letter word. I didn't tell Aiden that though, because in the end I didn't think he'd understand. No one did.

"If we're going to spy on Leanne we need a plan," I told him, abruptly changing the subject. "The ranch is much better protected than the mansion was. It will be harder to get in and out. There's also the matter of the vampires that have been chasing me for two days. One of them said I've been marked, and I can't sneak in anywhere if I'm worried about an attack from my rear."

I wasn't exactly sure what Aiden had hoped for me to say, but the slight hint of disappointment on his face told me that my change of topics wasn't it.

"Let's go and visit Caroline," he told me, "She might have something that can help."

He led the way off the walking track and back to the elevator doors. I glanced around one last time as they closed in front of me, unable to help the feeling that the last hour had been just for show somehow.

Caroline worked on the fifth floor, and this one, with it's dimly but professionally lit hallways and darkened rooms filled with monitors, recording equipment and expensive looking computers, was more like what I had been expecting.

It was sort of a maze of hallways, with different rooms, this time with solid and private walls, scattered everywhere in a pattern that I failed to recognize. Or perhaps it was just random, Maybe that was part of Aiden's paranoid security measures.

I stopped in front of one of the rooms, because it had it's door open and the seven screens that I could see were filled with blueprints and specs for a long narrow bullet, the kind that is used in assault rifles. Or maybe a sniper rifle, I thought as I noticed the gun specs on a separate monitor. The interior of the bullet looked wrong, like it was separated where it shouldn't have been. A little notation above the tip commented on the containment of silver nitrate.

A single chair sat at what looked like the base of the room's operations, with two keyboards and several computer related items I couldn't even identify. It was empty, but I could scent that there had been a wolf in the room recently.

I stared at Aiden, who'd stopped and waited patiently while I snooped.

"You've got the plans for the wolf killers."

He nodded. "Another useful bit of information that was included in the files we retrieved from Defence Medical. And before you ask what gun specs have to do with anything medical, there were trials."

That was bad news. Really bad news. Because it was one thing if another wolf pack had developed the tech, with intent to take out other packs, and completely another for the Government. Aiden was right, war was coming, and with a specific weapon targeted to killing wolves, things were not looking good.

"Trials, of the wolf killer."

Aiden's face darkened. "On living victims. Wolves. This time their identities were wiped clean, but somewhere out there is a pack or two missing three men and five women who are never going to return home. The average time from being shot with the silver nitrate bullet and death was three hours and forty minutes. Seems they wanted to measure the lethality of different shot locations."

"You're going to replicate them?"

"And counter them, if we're able. So far we know that limb shots are survivable, but chest shots are always lethal. Our ballistic vests have level four plates and that will help, but they are not infallible."

A wolf came around the corner, a coffee in hand. He was a taller youth, all length and bony angles. I'd known he was coming for some time. In fact, I could pick out all seventeen of the wolves—there were no humans on this floor—that littered the offices. He, on the other hand, had not expected us. He flinched backward, eyes wide, sloshing his coffee onto the front of his white button down shirt. His gaze darted to the door and then back to us.

"I'm sorry, sir. I was only going to be gone a moment..."

"We've talked about this Matthew. All security measures must be taken at all times."

The kid nodded, but wasn't smart enough to shut up. "It's just that with the dna clearance no one can even get to this floor, it takes five minutes to restart everything when I shut it down. That seems...like a waste...if I'm only..."

"Do you like your job, Matthew?"

Matthew looked panicked.

"Yes...sir."

"Then you do it properly. If you can't I'm certain I can find someone else who will and you can be demoted to sanitation."

I thought maybe tears started to form in the kid's eyes. How young was he?

"Lock up and shut down every, single time. Got it?"

"Got it," Matthew nodded sharply, his face pale, before skittering back into the room and closing the door, respectfully as possible, but firmly. Escaping the situation.

"He's a good kid," Aiden told me as we continued around a corner and down another long corridor.

Caroline was situated in a room at the end. This one was larger than Matthew's and with more screens and consoles. Aiden had been the one to spill blood to enter, but she didn't look surprised to see me standing along side him.

"Any progress on our friends?" Aiden asked her.

She pushed a dark curl off her forehead. Her lips were pressed tightly, her eyes showing weary circles and heavy wrinkles that hadn't been there the last time we'd met. Caroline was not getting her sleep.
She shook her head.

"Not as much as I would like. I still can't figure out how the second one escaped, and I've gone over the footage a thousand times, and the first one wont talk."

I whirled on Aiden.

"You tried to capture them?"

"Succeeded, for one anyway. Any notes about biology? Raven claims she has been marked, and given that they keep finding her I'm going to believe it. Yet we both know she can't be tracked. Not by scent or sound at least."

Caroline hummed and turned back to one of the keyboards, tapping along something. Data flicked to life on one of the screens.

"Increased hearing, vision, sense of smell and strength. Decreased heart rate, digestion, and almost complete lack of breathing, and a system that able to pick and choose when to conserve energy. We know about the speed already, we haven't figured out how it's biologically possible yet though. There's a note here, about possible heat sensing organ."

"Heat sensing?" Aiden perked up.

"One of our biologists noticed that our guest has nearly invisible v-shaped slits above his nostrils, much like a viper does."

"The head you guys...acquired, the fangs were also similar to a viper right? They folded up?"
Caroline raised a brow.

"Interesting conjecture. I'll make a note to connect the two observations."

"So if we base possibilities on a viper, might the vampires be tracking you through this other sense? One that we don't notice as wolves?"

"The heat sensor?"

"It would mean that she would need to differ from every other wolf and human somehow. And would have to be significant to track her over long distances."

"It's possible the long distance thing was just a problem of logistics. Coincidence, if you will. If the Vampires are working with whatever Thostchild is then they might have been heading out to the same area you visited yesterday. Perhaps meeting you on the road was just a coincidence," Aiden pointed out.

Caroline looked at me.

"How do you feel about undergoing a few tests?"

I nodded, not really caring, there was something else on my mind.

"And then I want to talk to the Vampire."