Dark Debt (Chicagoland Vampires #11)(63)
Author: Chloe Neill

“We’re missing part of the story,” Ethan said. “But it makes tonight’s negotiations that much more important. Let’s get to it.”

We all turned at the sound of footsteps in the hallway, found Jeff, Catcher, my grandfather, and Detective Jacobs walking toward us.

“The cavalry has arrived,” Ethan said, extending a hand to my grandfather and Detective Jacobs. “Gentlemen.”

“We understand the Navarre evacuation is complete,” Jacobs said.

“It is,” he said, “and Morgan’s in my office, ready to begin. And we’ve gleaned one additional bit of information. The Circle is apparently paying for Balthasar’s condo while he’s in town. The entities that own the two condos are on the Navarre list.”

My grandfather’s eyes widened appreciatively. “Isn’t that interesting?”

“We thought so,” Ethan agreed. “We don’t yet know how much they’re in bed together, but there’s certainly some connection.” He gestured toward the door. “Shall we?”

Morgan stood when we walked in. I gave him credit for not objecting to the CPD’s involvement, although the flash of irritation in his eyes was impossible to ignore.

But Ethan did a pretty good job of it. “Morgan, I believe you know Arthur Jacobs.”

Morgan nodded. “Sure. What’s the plan? Am I going to call him? Set up a meet?”

“That depends, in part, on the Circle,” Jacobs said.

“And the electronics,” Jeff added, who pointed to Luc.

“If you’ll follow me,” Luc said, “we’ll get to it.”

*   *   *

We convened in the Ops Room, vampires, humans, sorcerers, and shifters at the conference table, our collective gazes on Jeff.

“So, the Circle previously called Morgan’s cell or the Navarre office phone to make contact, yes?”

Morgan nodded. “Yeah. I’ve got a number, but I’ve never used it. I’m supposed to call it, wait for the return call.”

“Probably a throwaway phone,” Jacobs said. “But if you haven’t used it, the number should still be good.”

My grandfather clasped his hands on the table. “We know the Circle wants something. Hopefully, you’ve interrupted any immediate plans to take that payment in violence by getting your vampires safe. That was a very smart move, and a very impressive effort by the Houses.”

Morgan nodded.

“Now you’ll reach out to the Circle, find out what they want. As we’ve discussed, it seems unlikely that’s money at this point. It may be another job. It may be more House access. Considering the time that has passed since the unsuccessful attempt on King, I suspect they’ll be ready to tell you.”

“Okay,” Morgan said.

“Can I see your phone?” Jeff asked, removing a small black box from his pocket.

Morgan pulled out his phone, handed it over.

Jeff nodded, pried a tiny card from the side of the phone, then slid the card into a slot in the black box. The box’s glossy exterior began to glow.

“New toy?” I asked.

“A little multifunctional device I’ve been working on. Does a little of this, a little of that. A little telephony, among other things.”

After a moment, the box turned black again, and the tray popped open. At the same time, the Ops Room’s wall screen filled with graphs and charts.

“And there we go.” Jeff popped the card out, put it back in Morgan’s phone, returned the phone to him.

“I’ve borrowed your telemetry data,” Jeff said, spinning his chair around to look at the screen, bringing one chart to the center.

“All right,” he murmured. “I’m going to eliminate any calls that came from the same number more than once, and any that match your contact list.” That left a handful of plotted points on the screen. “You recognize any of those?”

Morgan eliminated a few numbers, leaving four on-screen.

“Those are burn phones’ prefixes,” Jeff said, gaze scanning the screen. “All different numbers. No apparent connection between them, and the calls all pinged different towers.”

“They’re very careful,” Jacobs said.

My grandfather nodded. “That’s how they’ve stayed in business so long. They are a remarkably careful group.”

“So the number you have will probably be another burner phone,” Jeff said. “When they’ve called you, how long does each call last?”

“They’re short. A minute, maybe?”

Jeff nodded. “Probably too short to trace, but we can at least determine which tower they’re using. So, when everybody’s ready, you’ll place a call to the number you’ve got, and I’ll do what I can to nail it down.”

“How do I play this?” Morgan asked, looking around the table.

“We’ve got two goals,” Jacobs said. “Addressing the situation with your House and, if possible, acquiring enough information to identify the Circle’s key players and shut them down.”

“The latter being the only real way to ensure that the former happens.”

“Frankly, yes.”

“When they call back, you’ll be matter-of-fact, but polite. In their minds, Navarre owes them a substantial debt, and they want to collect. They’ll have a demand, and you want to know what it is. You don’t have to negotiate with them, argue with them. You just need to know what they want. There’s a chance they won’t want to make that demand on the phone. That’s fine, and we can cross that bridge when we come to it. The key is to engage them in communication so we can move forward.”

Jeff looked at Luc. “Can we use your earbuds? I can dial them in so we can all hear the call.”

Luc nodded, pulled the box of earbuds from a locked desk drawer, lest his vampires should steal the tiny plastic nubbins.

Juliet beat me to the teasing. “You afraid we’re going to borrow those without asking, Dad?”

“You take my car, you stay out after curfew, you don’t call your mother regular,” Luc said in his best Chicago accent. “Bet your ass I’m locking up the silver.”

Luc passed the box around the room, and we took earbuds, slipped them in.

“We work long hours,” Luc said to Morgan. “Many of them are hard. We try to keep the tone light—but that’s no reflection on the work quality.”

Morgan nodded, but there was weariness in his gaze. Too many nights spent worrying, instead of commiserating with his vampires, his Novitiates and staff. And now those vampires were spread across the city like cottonwood seeds in the wind.